The World According to Mister Rogers

[theworldaccordingtomisterrogers]

Some days, doing “the best we can” may still fall short of what we would like to be able to do, but life isn’t perfect–on any front–and doing what we can with what we have is the most we should expect of ourselves or anyone else.

Mr. Rogers (via theworldaccordingtomisterrogers)

[theworldaccordingtomisterrogers]

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.

Mr. Rogers (via theworldaccordingtomisterrogers)

[theworldaccordingtomisterrogers]

In times of stress, the best thing we can do for each other is to listen with our ears and our hearts and to be assured that our questions are just as important as our answers.

Mr. Rogers (via theworldaccordingtomisterrogers)

[lemonyandbeatrice]

Fred McFeely Rogers (March 20, 1928 – February 27, 2003)

[cherrispryte]

Oh. Sobbing. Okay.

[bobobandura]

why am i actually crying at this

[theworldaccordingtomisterrogers]

because he’s right.

[theworldaccordingtomisterrogers]

We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It’s easy to say “It’s not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.” Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes.

Mr. Rogers (via theworldaccordingtomisterrogers)

[theworldaccordingtomisterrogers]

If you could only sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to the people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.

Mr. Rogers (via theworldaccordingtomisterrogers)

[thethroneofbooks]

“ In August, 1968, the country was still reeling from the assassination of Martin Luther King four months earlier, and the race riots that followed on its heels. Nightly news showed burning cities, white flight, radicals and reactionaries snarling at each other across the cultural divide.

“A brand new children’s show out of Pittsburgh, which had gone national the previous year, took a different approach. Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood introduced Officer Clemmons, a black police officer who was a kindly, responsible authority figure, kept his neighborhood safe, and was Mr. Roger’s equal, colleague and neighbor.

“Around the first anniversary of Martin Luther King’s death, Mr. Rogers invited Officer Clemmons to join him in soaking their tired feet in a plastic wading pool. And there they were, brown feet and pasty white feet, side by side in the water. Silently, contemplatively, without comment.

“25 years later, when the actor playing Officer Clemmons retired, his last scene on the show revisited that same wading pool, this time reminiscing. Officer Clemmons asked Mr. Rogers what he’d been thinking during their silent interlude a quarter century before. Fred Rogers’ answer was that he’d been thinking of the many ways people say “I love you.”

- Carl Aveni’s FB page

[harrygodzilla]

Mr Rogers was one of the good ones.

[apaullo95]

^^^^^

[knitmeapony]

Considering the fraught and painful history of excluding black people from swimming pools in that era, there is no way this wasn’t a very pointed commentary to the people who were being exclusionary.  This was a specifically chosen visual.

It’s not a fuck-you.  Mr. Rogers didn’t do fuck-yous.  But it was a clear, decisive, pointed statement.  It was more than just showing inclusion; it was a deliberate response to what was going on in the world.  This was him saying “you can do better.  We can all do better.  What you are doing is wrong.”  This was a sweet, simple, and relatable thing to show little kids, to give them a view of a black man as kind and professional and a trusted adult – but also a lovely and strong statement to their parents and to the world.

It could have lost him his show, or at least his national distribution.  It could have gotten him attacked both in the news and personally in person, but he did it anyway.  I wish I knew if he ever talked about this, and how aware he and the show producers were of the statement this made.

Man, do we need more Fred Rogers in the world.

[atopfourthwall]

Always reblog Fred Rogers.

[asktheangels]

[theworldaccordingtomisterrogers]

Confronting our feelings and giving them appropriate expression always takes strength, not weakness. It takes strength to acknowledge our anger, and sometimes more strength yet to curb the aggressive urges anger may bring and to channel them into nonviolent outlets. It takes strength to face our sadness and to grieve and to let our grief and our anger flow in tears when they need to. It takes strength to talk about our feelings and to reach out for help and comfort when we need it.

Mr. Rogers

[theworldaccordingtomisterrogers]

Some days, doing “the best we can” may still fall short of what we would like to be able to do, but life isn’t perfect–on any front–and doing what we can with what we have is the most we should expect of ourselves or anyone else.

Mr. Rogers

[theworldaccordingtomisterrogers]

I’m proud of you for the times you came in second, or third, or fourth, but what you did was the best you have ever done.

Mr. Rogers

[theworldaccordingtomisterrogers]

It’s very dramatic when two people come together to work something out. It’s easy to take a gun and annihilate your opposition, but what is really exciting to me is to see people with differing views come together and finally respect each other.

Mr. Rogers

[theworldaccordingtomisterrogers]

I hope you’re proud of yourself for the times you’ve said “yes,” when all it meant was extra work for you and was seemingly helpful only to someone else.

Mr. Rogers

[lemonyandbeatrice]

Fred McFeely Rogers (March 20, 1928 – February 27, 2003)

[cherrispryte]

Oh. Sobbing. Okay.

[bobobandura]

why am i actually crying at this

[theworldaccordingtomisterrogers]

because he’s right.

[theworldaccordingtomisterrogers]

When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. 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.

Mr. Rogers (via theworldaccordingtomisterrogers)

Thank God for the helpers. 

[theworldaccordingtomisterrogers]

When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.

Mr. Rogers

[theworldaccordingtomisterrogers]

If you grew up with our Neighborhood, you may remember how we sometimes talked about difficult things. There were days…even beautiful days…that weren’t happy. In fact, there were some that were really sad. Well, we’ve had a lot of days like that in our whole world. We’ve seen what some people do when they don’t know anything else to do with their anger. I’m convinced that when we help our children find healthy ways of dealing with their feelings—ways that don’t hurt them or anyone else—we’re helping to make our world a safer, better place. I would like to tell you what I often told you when you were much younger: I like you just the way you are. And what’s more, I’m so grateful to you for helping the children in your life to know that you’ll do everything you can to keep them safe and to help them express their feelings in ways that will bring healing in many different neighborhoods.

Mr. Rogers, from a Public Service Announcement following the events of September 11, 2001 (via theworldaccordingtomisterrogers)