Mr. Rogers
Feb. 27th, 2003 10:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thebratqueenI watched Mr. Rogers obsessively when I was a kid. Long past the time I probably should have, considering my age. It drove my brothers nuts because they wanted to watch cartoons and I would refuse to change the channel. It didn't matter if I'd seen that episode a thousand times. I still wanted to watch.
I genuinely hate the fact that I never got to tell this man personally how great he was.
I was a Sesame Street and Electric Company kid too, but you knew Mr. Rogers was different. Even as a kid you got that this guy was talking to you and not down to you. And there weren't any flashy gimmicks, or blatant marketing ploys (coughElmocough). Just a guy, talking, explaining stuff, showing you how crayons were made or singing songs about modeling clay.
I caught him on reruns sometimes when I was older and I was always impressed with how he talked to people. Even to adults he always had a patient tone, and an attitude which showed how the world was a fascinating place to explore, and every human being you talked to had something of value to them.
He was a minister, and I really think he was one of the few people who honestly and truly got Christ's message and lived it to his core.
The news of his death was literally the first thing I heard this morning. My alarm clock radio is set to NPR and at the top of the hour that was the news they gave.
I can't help but feel there's an ironic appropriateness to the fact that the second bit of news was about Bush's hatred of Saddam Hussein. Guess somebody didn't watch enough PBS as a kid, huh?
His website, which I didn't even know he had, has letters from fans on it. I scrolled through a few and was struck by how the message was the same from kids as young as five to adults with kids and grandkids of their own - thanks for being there, thanks for teaching me that I was special and worthwhile.
Or, as one five year old put it, "I love you."
When Mel Blanc died, there was a piece of artwork made to honor him that showed the Looney Tunes characters with their heads bowed and the caption: Speechless.
I can't help but feel something like that right now. Except this time it's a picture of a world without Fred Rogers and the caption should read "Heartless".
Fred Rogers didn't love kids. He loved humans, and remembered that kids and adults both made up humanity. He never once forgot the inherent dignity of every human being.
This human being misses him very much.
I genuinely hate the fact that I never got to tell this man personally how great he was.
I was a Sesame Street and Electric Company kid too, but you knew Mr. Rogers was different. Even as a kid you got that this guy was talking to you and not down to you. And there weren't any flashy gimmicks, or blatant marketing ploys (coughElmocough). Just a guy, talking, explaining stuff, showing you how crayons were made or singing songs about modeling clay.
I caught him on reruns sometimes when I was older and I was always impressed with how he talked to people. Even to adults he always had a patient tone, and an attitude which showed how the world was a fascinating place to explore, and every human being you talked to had something of value to them.
He was a minister, and I really think he was one of the few people who honestly and truly got Christ's message and lived it to his core.
The news of his death was literally the first thing I heard this morning. My alarm clock radio is set to NPR and at the top of the hour that was the news they gave.
I can't help but feel there's an ironic appropriateness to the fact that the second bit of news was about Bush's hatred of Saddam Hussein. Guess somebody didn't watch enough PBS as a kid, huh?
His website, which I didn't even know he had, has letters from fans on it. I scrolled through a few and was struck by how the message was the same from kids as young as five to adults with kids and grandkids of their own - thanks for being there, thanks for teaching me that I was special and worthwhile.
Or, as one five year old put it, "I love you."
When Mel Blanc died, there was a piece of artwork made to honor him that showed the Looney Tunes characters with their heads bowed and the caption: Speechless.
I can't help but feel something like that right now. Except this time it's a picture of a world without Fred Rogers and the caption should read "Heartless".
Fred Rogers didn't love kids. He loved humans, and remembered that kids and adults both made up humanity. He never once forgot the inherent dignity of every human being.
This human being misses him very much.
