Mister Rogers
Many of you know that one of my heroes is Mister Fred Rogers, of the Neighborhood. When I was a younger boy I remember feeling like I was often being rushed by my mother and encouraged to "Hurry up." I, at times, found this frustrating. In fact I remember specifically telling my mother on one occasion, when I was feeling rushed and not allowed to do things the way I wished to do them, I said to her, "Mister Rogers likes me the way I am." As I have grown a little older, I have had the opportunity to read various books and articles about this man that I so admire. I would like to include here a selection from one of those:
"[This is] the way [Mr. Rogers] addressed Boston University's class of 1992 at their baccalaureate service. 'L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux,' he said, quoting from one of his favorite saying from one of his favorite books, The Little Prince, by Saint-Exupery.
"[This is] the way [Mr. Rogers] addressed Boston University's class of 1992 at their baccalaureate service. 'L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux,' he said, quoting from one of his favorite saying from one of his favorite books, The Little Prince, by Saint-Exupery.
'What is essential is invisible to the eye.' It's not the honors and the prizes and the fancy outsides of life which ultimately nourish our souls. It's the knowing that we can be trusted, that we never have to fear truth, that the bedrock of our very being is good stuff.He paused for a long time. That question seemed to grip many in the audience, even the president of the university sitting there in his tassel cap and fancy gold medallion. Then Fred recited a version of 'It's You I Like,' a song he often sings on his television program.
What essential about you is invisible to the eye?
'It's you I like. It's not the things you wear. It's not the way you do your hair, but it's you I like. The way you are right now. The way deep down inside you. Not the things that hide you--not your diplomas, they're just beside you. But it's you I like. Every part of you.A stillness fell over the crowd. The people sat in silence, thinking about some part of themselves that they had long since forgotten, or some part they had not yet found. Or something else entirely. Whatever it was, a lot of them cried."
WOW....I always like Mr Rogers when I was little...I had not idea he spoke to 'adult' crowds. Thanks for sharing. Lisa
Posted by
Anonymous |
Fri Feb 04, 08:32:00 AM
I DO like you just the way you are...Mom
Posted by
Anonymous |
Fri Feb 04, 09:58:00 AM
Am I not what I do?
I agree with Mr. Rogers that my appearance and my degrees, etc., are not the whole of my essence. But if we grant that feelings, thoughts, and/or intentions are also things that I do, then what else am I besides what I do? Where and what is this mysterious "inside" of me that no one can see?
If my "inside" is made up of my feelings and intentions, then I think we are wrong to say it is my essence. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, right?
It seems more appropriate to say that someone's individual essence is nothing less than the sum total of what they think, feel, intend, do, say -- everything about them, inside and out.
But that isn't an essence at all. That is a totality. The point is that people are irreducible. They cannot be anything less than everything they are, and THAT is why individuals are essentially unknowable -- not because their essence is "inside" but because people are bigger and more complex and more sublime than I could possibly pin down with my small understanding.
With that in mind, perhaps the greatest adventure in life is just coming to know other people; or even better, coming to know some-one as completely as possible by giving your lives to each other.
How tragic that, given such a beautifully limitless opportunity, we so easily waste it by being self-centered, bored, or falling out of love.
Posted by
Jared Orme |
Fri Feb 04, 01:10:00 PM
Lisa- Glad you enjoyed it. I got it from a book entitled 'Mister Rogers Neighborhood' edited by Mark Collins and Margaret Mary Kimmel. It is very good.
Posted by
Cody Russell McComas |
Fri Feb 04, 06:08:00 PM
Three things, I haven't read the original post but...
1)Mr. Rogers is my idle (true story)
2)Jared - that was fabulously beautiful.
Posted by
Anonymous |
Thu Feb 10, 08:05:00 PM
3)I decided to post at another location
Posted by
Anonymous |
Thu Feb 10, 08:06:00 PM
"Love isn't a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like "struggle." To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now--and to go on caring even through times that may bring us pain."
-Mr Rogers-
Posted by
Anonymous |
Sun Feb 13, 02:19:00 PM