Streams of Mercy

In recent weeks, I’ve enjoyed reading The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers, by Maxwell King. Rogers, a Presbyterian minister, is best known for his long-running television show for children, “Mister Rogers Neighborhood.” He was very special to each of my children – our favorite place to be at 5 pm each day was in the Neighborhood with Mister Rogers and his family of real and make-believe friends. Such a hopeful, understanding and loving man – very important in the lives of little ones, as he told each one from week to week, “I’ve always wanted a neighbor just like you! It’s you I like! I like you just the way you are!”

In the forward to the book The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember, Rogers’ wife, Joanne shares a quote he had tucked away in his wallet, that says so very much about the kind of person he hoped to be:

He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed

often, and loved much, who has enjoyed the trust of pure

women, the respect of intelligent men, and the love

of little children, who has filled his niche and accomplished

his task, who has left the world better than he found it,

whether by an improved poppy, a perfect poem, or a

rescued soul, who has never lacked appreciation of

earth’s beauty or failed to express it, who has always

looked for the best in others and given them the best

he had, whose life was an inspiration, whose memory

a benediction.” (Bessie Anderson Stanley)

Several memorable quotes from this lovely little book are worth our sharing:

“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.”

“Our parents gave us what they were able to give, and we

took what we could of it and made it part of ourselves…all

that helped to make us who we are. We, in our turn,

will offer what we can of ourselves to our children…”

“It seems the songs of our children may be in keys we’ve

never tried. The melody of each generation emerges from

all that’s gone before. Each one of us contributes in some

unique way to the composition of life.”

“I have 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?”

“Imagine what our neighborhoods would be like

if each of us offered, as a matter of course, just

one kind word to another person.”

“The real issue in life is not how many blessings we have,

but what we do with our blessings. Some people have

many blessings and hoard them. Some have few and

give everything away.”

I give thanks for the life and work of Fred Rogers, and for his ordination as a Presbyterian minister, with the unique charge of working with children and families through television.

Elizabeth