Mister Rogers

1977 Premium from PBS

When I was pregnant with my first child, I started watching "Sesame Street", a fairly new show on PBS.  As a high school teacher, I loved the wit and the pace.  While visiting a friend who was a new mother, I saw "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" and turned my nose up---so boring, so ordinary---none of the snap of "Sesame Street".

My friend assured me that it grew on her, and her son obviously loved it.  Shortly after that we moved to Pittsburgh, PA where Fred Rogers lived and filmed his show.  My daughter watched the show and it  started to grow on me:  I started listening to what Mr. Rogers said, the messages he was sending to our children.

Recently on Facebook, I've seen several references to Mister Rogers.

From Mashable:  "10 Mister Rogers Quotes to Remember on Bad Days". 

From Mental Floss:  "20 Gentle Quotations from Mister Rogers"

11. ON LOVE

"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."

Forty years later, I value "Mister Roger's Neighborhood" (and now "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood") more each day.  Click here for a previous post on Fred Rogers. What was "boring" is now calming.  What was "ordinary" is now comfortable.  With endorsements from Buzzfeed, Mashable and Mental Floss, Mister Rogers is epic, boss, awesome, or as my daughter says "da bomb.com" .