You will always find people who are helping.” To this day, especially in times of “disaster,” I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers-so many caring people in this world. When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. Indeed, here is what Mister Rogers still says to us today: With fascinating frequency, his written messages and video clips surge across the internet, reaching hundreds of thousands of people who, confronted with a tough issue or ominous development, open themselves to Rogers’s messages of quiet contemplation, of simplicity, of active listening and the practice of human kindness.
Then the web is filled with his words and images. Whenever a great tragedy strikes-war, famine, mass shootings, or even an outbreak of populist rage-millions of people turn to Fred’s messages about life. Perhaps biographer and friend Maxwell King provides the best answer himself: Years after the final episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood on Aug(just weeks before the tragic events of September 11), we apparently still need that humble, kind, loving, gentle Mister Rogers-complete with the cardigan sweater his mother knitted for him (which now hangs in the Smithsonian). Or perhaps it’s because of our current national and world turmoil. Maybe it’s because 2018 was the ninetieth anniversary of his birth.
I’m not sure why we’re having this sudden resurgence of attention on Fred Rogers, who died in 2003. I learned much about Fred Rogers in this short film, and I learned even more about him in The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers by Maxwell King (and I’ve heard that there’s another book on the way). There are three ways to ultimate success:Įarlier this year, PBS aired a documentary called Won’t You Be My Neighbor? I was told by a friend who saw it that it would make me laugh-and cry.
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