Like many other people in this world, I grew up with watching Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. From an early age, I was exposed to the joy and tenderness he shared with us through television; a world of openness and understanding, a place where conflicts were faced with love and patience. I think for many, this helped set a precedent early in life as to how we ought to be ourselves and care for those around us; to help us not be afraid of our feelings, but to know their importance and our say over them.
So, I grew up, like everyone else, knowing Fred Rogers as the nice man on TV who made a show for kids. But as the years went on, and I began to learn more about him through articles and interviews, I started to understand who he was and what he was doing on a deeper level. My connection and adoration for who he was grew. Then last year, the documentary, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” came out, and my life was never the same after that first viewing. Or all the subsequent viewings after that. It became not only my favorite film that year, but one of my absolute favorites of all-time.
I love many movies that are not for everyone. I believe wholeheartedly that this documentary is for EVERYONE to see.
What I realized through watching this documentary was just how incredibly deep and human Fred Rogers was and how truly radical his life and his art was for the world. He was truly one of a kind and someone who carried a fire and purity that is difficult to find in most places. But the beauty of it is that he still called each of us to carry that mantle, no matter what. He was someone who lived out exactly who God made him to be and it is such a beautiful thing to watch.
Reflecting on all of this and the many reasons he’s a hero of mine, I’ve asked myself, “what’s the biggest connection of mine that has caused him and his legacy to resonate with me so deeply?”. Well, I recently had moved a few months ago. As my family and I were arranging storage bins in our new garage, there was a clear plastic bin full of stuff from my time in school as a kid, and there was one particular piece of paper showing on the front. This piece of paper appeared to be something I had written when I was really young(somewhere between Kindergarten and 2nd Grade). The paper in questions reads this:
“My dream is that people treat each other nice.”
I was shocked. Before I even knew what I wanted to do in life, according to my very young self, that was my dream. Understandably, that dream could sound very naive and unrealistic to the world and how life appears to most of us. But what was written there was pure and honest.
What I’ve realized is that, in a way, this is still my heart and ultimate dream. It’s easy to mistake these words as meaning that we just need to ignore all problems we face or just put on a mask of “niceness” for other people to keep things pleasant. Both of those are false to what is meant here. Ultimately, my dream here is what Fred Rogers was all about: a world where no matter the problems we face or the differences we may hold, that we are able to recognize the God given humanity and identity in our neighbors around us and love them so that each of us can be the best person that we each were uniquely created to be.
This is something that is WAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYY easier said than done, and is constantly at odds with the broken world we live in, and it seems at times that things grow more and more tense and frightening. But, I know for myself, I didn’t choose this dream, it chose me. God put it there. While I have my unique interests and qualities and know that not everyone will love what I do or even everything about me, my deepest hope for all that I do and create is that it would help bring the world together, not apart. Like Fred, I genuinely think that no matter who you are, that we all deserve a chance to be who we were created to be and that we can live in a world where we treat each other with the love and kindness endowed to each and every one of us. That as the kid in me dreamed, that people would treat each other nice.
As Fred Rogers once said, “You don’t have to do anything sensational for people to love you.” I believe that is true, and I hope each and every one of you can receive that love in your life.
By the way, here’s that piece of paper I found in our storage, as proof haha.
Photo Cred: Matthew Freres
Photo Cred: Matthew Freres