Sky sent me his notes for his presentation: Lots of treasures here:
Sky says: Fred Rogers is one of my heroes, and some of you requested some of the quotes I selected for my talk last week, so I have included some about him and by him.
If you want to get a feel for the man, you might want to read this delightfully written article: “Fred Rogers, man of steel and prayer.” In 
this 1998 Esquire profile of Mister Rogers by Tom Junod. 
http://www.thedqtimes.com/
this 1998 Esquire profile of Mister Rogers by Tom Junod. http://www.thedqtimes.com/
If you wish a book about him, also very well written by a friend of his: Amy Hollingsworth. She is the author of The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers: Spiritual Insights from the World's Most Beloved Neighbor (2005), based on her nine-year friendship with Fred.
Fred Rogers had a favorite quote:
You can only see clearly with the heart…What is essential is invisible to the eye.” – Antoine de Saint Exupéry.
Read on for much more about Mr. Rogers, a familiar memory from most of our childhoods. Notes from our own wonderful Sky.
Read on for much more about Mr. Rogers, a familiar memory from most of our childhoods. Notes from our own wonderful Sky.
Quotes about him:
Mr. Fred Rogers opened each of his childrens' shows with the statement: "think of someone who is important to you!
Mr. Rogers was bullied. Why do human things to this -- he started to think about this when he was 8-9 years old.
Mr. Fred Rogers opened each of his childrens' shows with the statement: "think of someone who is important to you!
Mr. Rogers was bullied. Why do human things to this -- he started to think about this when he was 8-9 years old.
The real Mr. Rogers never preached, never even mentioned God [on his show] He never had to.
-Bob Faw
Words applicable to Fred Rogers originally said about St. Francis …“ he preached the gospel at all times and when necessary used words.”
Rogers favorite word was "Grace". Grace is defined as unmerited favor received from God.
He received 4000 letters/year and tried to answer them all.
He would swim every day of his life. Before jumping into the pool, he sang Jubilata Dei. He always weighed 143#. He never drank or smoked. In his children's TV programs, he addressed the fears of children -- slowly. "I like to take my time," he said. 9000 programs were scripted. His first show was in 1968. An example of how he demonstrated slowness of living -- Mix cornstarch with water to a certain consistency. If you hit it quickly -- your finger bounces off. If you hit it slowly the finger enters the mixture.
Fred Rogers said, "The mind has an innate desire to grow obstacles get in way. Your job is to remove the obstacles.
Fred Rogers also said, "A child is more than his sickness. the disabled is more than his disability. A pediatrician is more than his medical knowledge. Then there was some discussion of why medical providers talk about "the heart attack in Room 101. Why can they not identify with the person.
Rogers favorite word was "Grace". Grace is defined as unmerited favor received from God.
He received 4000 letters/year and tried to answer them all.
He would swim every day of his life. Before jumping into the pool, he sang Jubilata Dei. He always weighed 143#. He never drank or smoked. In his children's TV programs, he addressed the fears of children -- slowly. "I like to take my time," he said. 9000 programs were scripted. His first show was in 1968. An example of how he demonstrated slowness of living -- Mix cornstarch with water to a certain consistency. If you hit it quickly -- your finger bounces off. If you hit it slowly the finger enters the mixture.
Fred Rogers said, "The mind has an innate desire to grow obstacles get in way. Your job is to remove the obstacles.
Fred Rogers also said, "A child is more than his sickness. the disabled is more than his disability. A pediatrician is more than his medical knowledge. Then there was some discussion of why medical providers talk about "the heart attack in Room 101. Why can they not identify with the person.
WE discussed briefly the pace of the Mr. Rogers shows versus the pace of Sesame Street and now the greater pace in TV shows and in video games. Should we slow our children down. Children are capable of slowing down.
Our society breeds this fast pace. There is our fast food pace,. We breed this,we live this, and we teach our children this fast pace. Fred Rogers felt that storytelling is a way around this. But we need to draw our children into this. Fred Rogers said, "The greatest gift you ever give is your honest self.
Fred Rogers is more Mr. Rogers than Mr. Rogers.
- James Kaplan
Quotes by Fred Rogers:
And so, for me, being quiet and slow is being myself, and that is my gift.
-Fred Rogers
“When I say it's you I like, I'm talking about that part of you that knows that life is far more than anything you can ever see or hear or touch. That deep part of you that allows you to stand for those things without which humankind cannot survive. Love that conquers hate, peace that rises triumphant over war, and justice that proves more powerful than greed.”
“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.”
“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.”
Anyone who does anything to help a child in his life is a hero to me. ”
“Forgiveness is a strange thing. It can sometimes be easier to forgive our enemies than our friends. It can be hardest of all to forgive people we love. Like all of life's important coping skills, the ability to forgive and the capacity to let go of resentments most likely take root very early in our lives.”
“Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary. The people we trust with that important talk can help us know that we are not alone.”
“Part of the problem with the word 'disabilities' is that it immediately suggests an inability to see or hear or walk or do other things that many of us take for granted. But what of people who can't feel? Or talk about their feelings? Or manage their feelings in constructive ways? What of people who aren't able to form close and strong relationships? And people who cannot find fulfillment in their lives, or those who have lost hope, who live in disappointment and bitterness and find in life no joy, no love? These, it seems to me, are the real disabilities.”
“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.”
“You rarely have time for everything you want in this life, so you need to make choices. And hopefully your choices can come from a deep sense of who you are. ”
“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.”
“Often when you think you're at the end of something, you're at the beginning of something else.”
“Love and trust, in the space between what’s said and what’s heard in our life, can make all the difference in the world. ”
“Who we are in the present includes who we were in the past.”
“Mutual caring relationships require kindness and patience, tolerance, optimism, joy in the other's achievements, confidence in oneself, and the ability to give without undue thought of gain.”
“The greatest gift you ever give is your honest self.”
“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.”
“The thing I remember best about successful people I've met all through the years is their obvious delight in what they're doing and it seems to have very little to do with worldly success. They just love what they're doing, and they love it in front of others.”
“The child is in me still and sometimes not so still.”
“Whether we're a preschooler or a young teen, a graduating college senior or a retired person, we human beings all want to know that we're acceptable, that our being alive somehow makes a difference in the lives of others.”
“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.”
“Discovering the truth about ourselves is a lifetime’s work, but it’s worth the effort.”
“The kingdom of God is for the broken hearted”
“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”
“We need to help people to discover the true meaning of love. Love is generally confused with dependence. Those of us who have grown in true love know that we can love only in proportion to our capacity for independence.”
“Little by little we human beings are confronted with situations that give us more and more clues that we are not perfect. ”
“It's not the honors and the prizes and the fancy outsides of life which ultimately nourish our souls. It's the knowing that we can be trusted, that we never have to fear the truth, that the bedrock of our very being is good stuff.”
“The connections we make in the course of a life--maybe that's what heaven is.”
“When we treat children's play as seriously as it deserves, we are helping them feel the joy that's to be found in the creative spirit. It's the things we play with and the people who help us play that make a great difference in our lives.”
“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.”
“Life is for service.”
“In the external scheme of things, shining moments are as brief as the twinkling of an eye, yet such twinklings are what eternity is made of -- moments when we human beings can say "I love you," "I'm proud of you," "I forgive you," "I'm grateful for you." That's what eternity is made of: invisible imperishable good stuff.”
“Whatever we choose to imagine can be as private as we want it to be. Nobody knows what you're thinking or feeling unless you share it.”
“At the center of the Universe is a loving heart that continues to beat and that wants the best for every person. Anything that we can do to help foster the intellect and spirit and emotional growth of our fellow human beings, that is our job. Those of us who have this particular vision us to continue against all odds. Life is for service.”
“The world needs a sense of worth, and it will achieve it only by its people feeling that they are worthwhile.”
“Peace means far more than the opposite of war.”
“Sometimes people are good, and they do just what they should. But the very same people who are good sometimes are the very same people who are bad sometimes. It's funny but it's true. Its the same isn't it, for me and . . .”
“Knowing that we can be loved exactly as we are gives us all the best opportunity for growing into the healthiest of people.”
“What's been important in my understanding of myself and others is the fact that each one of us is so much more than any one thing. A sick child is much more than his or her sickness.
A person with a disability is much, much more than a handicap. A pediatrician is more than a medical doctor. You're MUCH more than your job description or your age or your income or your output.”
“I like to compare the holiday season with the way a child listens to a favorite story. The pleasure is in the familiar way the story begins, the anticipation of familiar turns it takes, the familiar moments of suspense, and the familiar climax and ending.”
“There is no normal life that is free of pain. It's the very wrestling with our problems that can be the impetus for our growth.”
“How great it is when we come to know that times of disappointment can be followed by joy; that guilt over falling short of our ideals can be replaced by pride in doing all that we can; and that anger can be channeled into creative achievements... and into dreams that we can make come true.”
“I don't think anyone can grow unless he's loved exactly as he is now, appreciated for what he is rather than what he will be.”
“There was a story going around about the Special Olympics. For the hundred-yard dash, there were nine contestants, all of them so-called physically or mentally disabled. All nine of them assembled at the starting line and, at the sound of the gun, they took off. But one little boy didn't get very far. He stumbled and fell and hurt his knee and began to cry. The other eight children heard the boy crying. They slowed down, turned around, and ran back to him--every one of them ran back to him. The little boy got up, and he and the rest of the runners linked their arms together and joyfully walked to the finish line.
They all finished the race at the same time. and when they did, everyone in the stadium stood up and clapped and whistled and cheered for a long, long time. And you know why? Because deep down we know that what matters in this life is more than winning for ourselves. What really matters is helping others win, too, even if it means slowing down and changing our course now and then.”
“It's really easy to fall into the trap of believing that what we do is more important than what we are. Of course, it's the opposite that's true: What we are ultimately determines what we do!”
“Feeling good about ourselves is essential in our being able to love others.”
“Try your best to make goodness attractive. That's one of the toughest assignments you'll ever be given.”
“Anyone who has ever been able to sustain good work has had at least one person--and often many--who have believed in him or her. We just don't get to be competent human beings without a lot of different investments from others.”
“I believe that appreciation is a holy thing--that when we look for what's best in a person we happen to be with at the moment, we're doing what God does all the time. So in loving and appreciating our neighbor, we're participating in something sacred.”
“Often out of periods of losing come the greatest strivings toward a new winning streak.”
You make each day a special day. You know how, by just your being you. There's only one person in this whole world like you. And people can like you exactly as you are.
-Fred Rogers
Fred wrote over 200 songs for his show. Here are a few:
Mr. Rogers: [singing] It's such a good feeling/ To know you're alive / It's such a happy feeling/ You're growing inside/ And when you wake up, ready to say/ "I think I'll make a snappy new day"
[Snaps fingers twice]
Mr. Rogers: It's such a good feeling / A very good feeling / The feeling you know that we're friends.
[speaking]
Mr. Rogers: You always make each day a special day. By just you're being you. There's only one person exactly like you in the whole world. And that's you yourself, and I like you.
[singing]
“It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood,
A beautiful day for a neighbor.
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?...
It's a neighborly day in this beauty wood,
A neighborly day for a beauty.
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?...
I've always wanted to have a neighbor just like you.
I've always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you.
So, let's make the most of this beautiful day.
Since we're together we might as well say:
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?
Won't you be my neighbor?
Won't you please,
Won't you please?
Please won't you be my neighbor?”
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