Shar and I just went to see the film It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, starring Tom Hanks as Mister Rogers, the popular PBS show host and creator. “Hi neighbor.” You can’t say those words without knowing they’re from Fred Rogers. Much of his wisdom applies to us in many stages of adulthood. Here are a few lessons:
Routine and responsibility are the bedrock of our day. Mister Rogers sang a peppy song, put on his cardigan, and had a warm conversation with us. A daily routine and something that brings us care and comfort can help us get through hard times no matter our age. A sense of responsibility for ourselves and others—another side of many of our daily routines—can do the same. Feed your pets, call or text lonely friends, offer a ride to a neighbor, hug your families. As Rogers sang, “It’s such a good feeling to know you’re alive.”
It feels good to make something, even if you aren’t very good at it. In one episode, Rogers used crayons to make a quick picture and illustrate a point, saying offhandedly, “I’m not very good at it, but it doesn’t matter. It feels good to have made something.”
The Land of Make-Believe is still there for us if we quietly use our imagination to drift and think about how we might make the world better and more magical. We can create our own Land of Make-Believe. Imagining something may be the first step in making it happen, but it takes real time and real effort from real people to learn things, make things, and turn thoughts into deeds or visions into inventions.
Look for the helpers. When something terrible happens in our lives, many people around us are willing to help if they know we need help. Even better, now that we’re grown up, we can be one of the helpers for others in times of need. Taking care is one way to show love. Another way is letting people take good care of you when you need it.
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. It’s 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.
Finally, just be a good neighbor. Mister Rogers’ friends from the Land of Make-Believe often enacted lessons about how to treat each other through times of misunderstanding and hurt feelings. We now live in a time where misunderstanding and hurt feelings abound in real life. Remember, everybody’s going through something they probably aren’t telling us about—maybe they can’t even articulate it themselves. Rogers demonstrated on his show and in real life that empathy and grace are the most important foundations to being a good neighbor. This movie is a great reminder of this life lesson and encourages us to take a moment to figure out how to be a good neighbor to someone who needs one.
Leave a Reply