Little by little we human beings are confronted with situations that give us more and more clues that we aren't perfect.
-Fred Rogers

Mister Rogers... How many of us havn't traveled to his neighborhood? Seen the land of make believe? Mister Rogers is one of my top three heroes. His look on the world... on people was soft, understated and compassionate. He told the truth even when we didn't want to hear it. He never clouded the issues. And... he never treated us like we were children. Never once did he think that we could not understand something. Such honesty is rare these days.

Assasination, the Cold War, tradgedy, world peace... these were as common topics on his programe as sharing, compassion, understanding and friendship. One of my most vivid memories is Mister Rogers talking about the Challenger explosion. I watched it burst into flames on TV (I was in Kindergarten an we were all watching it in the auditorium), but it wasn't until I saw Mister Roger almost break down into tears that I truly realized what it meant. Mister Roger spoke plainly about death and about sacrifice. He didn't gloss over events like many adults, instead he knew that we could see and that we could understand.

We need to remember that children are trying, too; trying to understand their feelings and their world, trying to please the people they love, trying to grow. When grownups and children are trying together, just about anything can be possible.
-Fred Rogers

Why is it that so few people have the courage to speak plainly to children? Why is it so many people treat them as if they are blind, deaf and dumb? I've never understood that. I am sure most adults think they are sheltering children from hurt, but life contains hurt. It contains pain, sadness, sorrow, tradgedy, miscommunication as well as joy, freedom, and whimsy. Mister Rogers knew this. He was never scared of his feelings or sharing them. He knew that even though we were young, we were human and subject to the same emotions as adults.

The older I get, the more convinced I am that the space between communicating human beings can be hallowed ground.
-Fred Rogers

Yes, human beings. Human beings... that is what we all are. Age, Race, sex, religion... these are but trivialities compared to the greater picture. If we dare to communicate we will be treading on the hallowed ground. The use of words, the shared space - the true Holy Land: this is where we find the place of connection. All people travel this land, but some circle around it, afraid to get too close. This leads to misunderstanding, miscommunication, dishonesty.

We should treat this space as what it is: holy. If more people did that, there would be less misunderstanding. We could find the common ground we so often find ourselves searching for in this crazy world of terrorism, hunger, fear and degredation.

The day I heard Fred Rogers passed away, I cried. Mister Rogers taught me that it was okay to cry when I was sad. So, for him I cried and then I laughed. He deserved both my joy and sadness for his life and his death.

As human beings, our job in life is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us really is, that each of us has something that no one else has—or ever will have—something inside that is unique to all time. It's our job to encourage each other to discover that uniqueness and to provide ways of developing its expression.
-Fred Rogers

Posted by Utopia at August 8, 2005 08:30 AM

Comments

Post a comment