How Mr. Rogers Changed My Life

      Click, click, click. The sound that the dial on our old black and white TV with the big antennas on top made as it was turned to channel 12.  Channel 12 helped to mold me. I learned through watching Big Bird to never tell a lie. Ernie taught me that even the littlest things in life can be amazing. I learned to sound out words watching The Electric company, but it was Mr. Rogers who had the biggest impact. Fred Rogers taught me not just to be compassionate but to be empathetic. 

     I couldn't have been more than 5 or 6 years old when in an episode of Mr. Rogers, he looked up into the sky at an airplane and started talking about the people on the plane. He wondered aloud if there might be a happy family going on vacation, a sad lady going to visit her sick mother, or a soldier returning after a long time away from home.  I remember later that day watching an airplane fly by and wondering the same thing. Before long I found myself wondering about the people in the cars on the road around us, a family laughing in the park, and even about a lady that looked sad while she stood in line at the store. Because of my crazy and creative streak I would make up stories to go along with the people. I had a story for everyone on the airplane. Sometimes the people in the cars were happy and on their way to dinner, but sometimes if I saw angry faces Daddy and Mommy were yelling at the kids in the back seat and they were turning around and going back home. 

   

     I wish that everyone had had the chance to see that episode because I strongly believe that if we all took his simple idea, "to wonder about the people in the plane", that the world would be a much kinder place.

That red car that just cut me off stops being just a car. My day being ruined turns into our day. Now there is a lady in the car; a lady that yes, may just be being rude, but maybe she has had a terrible day, maybe she didn't see me, maybe someone she loves is sick. 

     When everything stops being about me and becomes about us the feelings change, the behaviors change. Just imagine what driving would be like if we all took the time to consider all of the others drivers not just as a hazard to us but as people with their own set of problems and stressors. Imagine if everyone did that for you. How about at the grocery store... how would it be if everyone there suddenly started considering your feelings. I think we would hear an onslaught of polite phrases. A whole lot of please, thank you and excuse me from every direction. I think trash would disappear from the roadsides because we would be considering those who have to come clean it up. People would never listen to their music loud enough to bother the neighbors, mean hurtful comments spewed out in a fit of anger would be a thing of the past. 

   I don't have my head in the sand. I know we live in a sinful world so I will have to wait for Heaven to see the world like this, but I just thought it might be nice to suggest that we all try to take Mr. Rogers advice and wonder about the people around us.