Mister Rogers
I have pictures of several people on the wall of my office — people I admire and want to model my life after. One of those pictures is of Mister Rogers. Actually, it’s a picture of him laughing together with the Dalai Lama. What a wonderful meeting that must have been.
This weekend I watched the documentary Mister Rogers & Me, made by a young man who was his neighbor on Nantucket Island. It was touching and reminded me again of why I love having a picture of him laughing on my wall.
Mister Rogers is a man who spent his life living in a deep and simple way. He wanted to make the world a safer and more loving place for children. And he created that safe and loving place for them on his show.
Mister Rogers told us that each of us is special just for being ourselves and we each deserve love and respect. He also showed us that each of us makes a very real difference in the world by using our talents in service to others (entrepreneurs included).
In his words
- 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. That’s what makes growing humanity the most potentially glorious enterprise on earth.
If you’d like to see more, you may enjoy the documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, his 1969 testimony to the U.S. Senate, and The World According to Mister Rogers, which you can find here and in your local library.
Thank you for making today a special day just by being yourself.
Read more
- His 1969 Senate testimonyGreat Speeches
- The World According to Mister RogersAmazon
- Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (2018)Wikipedia
- The Fred Rogers Institutefredrogers.org
- Fred RogersWikipedia
366 meditations on gratitude, kindness, and the people who inspire us — one true story or quote a day. Many of the people on this shelf will be in it.
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