Kindness and Wonder: Why Mr Rogers Matters Now More than Ever. The great book and film reviewer Ben Steelman passed this wonderful book on to me, and he was right that I would enjoy it. I didn't grow up watching Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. He was after my time. I caught as much Captain Kangaroo as I could before leaving for grade school each morning. But those two shared a sensibility of love for children, and a gentle kindness, an overall orientation to which we desperately need to return.
When Mr. Rogers was dying of cancer, he asked his wife, "Am I a sheep?" He was alluding to the Biblical parable of the sheep and the goats, which, with nothing against goats, Jesus had used to illustrate the fact that in the end, there would be two different types of people. According to Jesus in this use of the metaphor, his sheep are those who help others in need, outsiders, the poor, and the downtrodden. The goat may think he's the Greatest Of All Time, but he's all ego and no love. The author of this book quotes Jesus saying that what we do to the least of our brothers and sisters, we do to him. Addressing the true sheep in his flock, he said: "I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you gave me clothing. I was in prison and you visited me." Those are the most salient identifying features of any among us who truly belong to God the Father recognized by Jesus and Mr. Rogers. Others who may proclaim his name and their great faith and allegiance are just bleating goats.
But once you read this book through, you realize that the greatest thing anyone can do for a goat is to love him or her. That doesn't have to mean liking them (which the near saintly Fred Rogers seemed to manage somehow, liking all of us just the way we are, while hoping better for many of us) and it doesn't mean endorsing goat conduct. It means remembering that each person is a child of God, no matter how far they may have fallen. It might require imagining them as little children, or as the babies they once were, new to the world, and seeking to connect with that core of their soul or self that existed before all the false beliefs and bad attitudes and awful behavior on Face Book and Twitter and In Real Life. It means feeling compassion, and wishing for true good for everyone, while rejecting the false and wrong they may bring into the world. It means seeking to approach everything and everyone with love and kindness and real compassion before all else. We tend to get that backwards too much of the time.
That's the message and legacy of Fred Rogers. For a book with several very funny stories (I laughed out loud three times), many deeply insightful incidents, and some important ideas we all need right now, check this one out.. For the book, click HERE.
