Photo from Wikipedia
Last Christmas I received a Mr. Rogers quote a day daily calendar from Cheryl. Every page is a different quote for every weekday. For the weekends there are only 1 quote for Saturday and Sunday.
It’s a fantastic calendar and I love it.
Now, I’m quite certain that anyone reading this will know who Fred Rogers was.
When I was young I would always watch Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood when it was on.
As I got older I didn’t watch him as much but would often sit down and watch or stop for a few minutes as my sister Hayley watched him.
Of course in later years kids would goof on Mr. Rogers and joke about his style.
National Lampoon and Saturday Night Live even did spoofs of him which he took in stride. He was always a good sport as long as there was no cursing or adult themes involved.
There are so many things that Mr. Rogers did and so many messages that he passed along.
It is impossible to measure the lasting impact that he had on so many lives, big and small, young and old.
He wouldn’t hesitate to address serious topics such as war, death, divorce.
He respected the children enough to not insult their intelligence and talk to them about real or scary things.
But he did it in such a way that didn’t blast them and shock or traumatize their souls.
I’ve often wondered if there has been anyone quite like him. There are many that I think have come close to him such as Canadian legends Mr. Dressup and The Friendly Giant but in my opinion he stood alone above all.
I was not really surprised to learn that Fred Rogers was an ordained Presbyterian minister. However, I am still surprised and impressed at how little he brought religion into his show.
Even my calendar only has references to religion a couple of times.
He was able to teach love and decency to all and remain inclusive of anyone and everyone on the planet.
I remember the day that he passed away. I felt sad. I had not really been following news of his life and didn’t even know that he was sick.
This may seem a bit strange but since his passing I have come to idolize Fred Rogers. This gets deeper with every article, movie or documentary about him.
I’ve actually shed more tears about his passing in the last few years than any time in the past.
I’m not certain why but I decided that every day in 2021 I would take the daily quotes and post them to my Facebook and Twitter timelines.
Just for fun I also message them to Cheryl, Tyler and Braydon.
I regret that my sons never had a chance to watch him but I hope that with every quote of his that they get from me they realize what a wonderful man he was.
Fred Rogers did something that very few have ever done in history.
He created an army of love one television episode at a time.
The quote today is one of my absolute favourites.
“We parents are the holders of a priceless gift, a gift we received from countless generations we never knew, a gift that only we now possess and only we can give to our children.” - Mr. Rogers quote of the day
One of my good friends didn’t quite understand what this was about.
I tried to explain as best as I could what this message meant to me.
“The makeup of all of us is the result of the many generations before us going all the way back to star stuff and the origins of life. There are people going back hundreds of years in our family lines that we will likely never have a clue about, yet physical and mental traits of them have come down to us. We pass them down to our children and the line will continue on into people that will probably never even know our names. Some of these traits are not so great. However, in true Mr. Roger's style, he has chosen to look on the positive side and sees all of them as "gifts".”
I hope that I got it right.
Stay well,
Tim
“You are special. You’re special to me. There’s only one in this wonderful world.”
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