I first ran this post several years ago after there was a week that seemed to have one horrible headline after another. It feels like a good time to run it again.
A generation of children grew up to be better people because of the lessons Mr. Rogers taught, but I wonder how many little ones know who he is anymore?
He was as genuinely kind in person as he was on television. I know this because when I was a nurse at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, he was a frequent visitor there.
He actually had the opportunity to personally console me one day. I had chopped my waist length hair into an awful perm. I guess I was visibly upset over this bad haircut. What lessons did help me remember?
Hugs help
Hair grows back.
Here are some of my favorite pieces of his wisdom:
There are three ways to ultimate success: The first way is to be kind. The second way is to be kind. The third way is to be kind.
There is only one thing evil cannot stand, and that is forgiveness.
There's a part of all of us that longs to know that even what's weakest about us can ultimately count for something good. It is okay not to be perfect!
Solitude is different from loneliness, and it doesn't have to be a lonely kind of thing.
Accept people as they are.
Look and listen carefully.
We all have feelings. Talking and acknowledging them is the first step towards finding ways to deal with them that don’t hurt anyone.
Anything that's human is mention-able, and anything that's mention-able can be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary. The people we trust with that important talk can help us know that we're not alone.
Wonder about things
You can’t go down the drain in the bathtub. Don’t be shy about sharing things that might be scary.
Be yourself. It is not how you look, what you wear or what toys you have that make you special.
What can you grow in the garden of your mind? Use your imagination.
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.
One of the most important things a person can learn to do is to make something out of whatever he or she happens to have at the moment.
Often out of periods of losing come the greatest strivings toward a new winning streak.
Often when you think you're at the end of something, you're at the beginning of something else.
There are times when explanations, no matter how reasonable, just don't seem to help.
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.
Look for the helpers. Those might be a person in uniform, or another parent with children.
People have reached out to ask me how I am faring after the election. Actually, I am on a ‘headline hiatus’ for another week or so.
While I realized that many people are celebrating what they see as a victory, Personally, I am confused, sad and frightened.
At some point, when I am ready, I will look at the world, roll up my sleeves, remind myself of some of Mr. Rogers' finer pieces of wisdom and see what I can do to make a positive difference
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