(Video link here.) On June 8th, Morgan Neville’s highly anticipated documentary about Mister Rogers, Won’t You Be My Neighbor, will be released. Fred Rogers was known for his extraordinary empathy with children, and his ability to help them navigate —via his television show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood— seemingly “adult” subjects like divorce, adoption, anger, death, jazz, diversity…

We discovered Mister Rogers as adults after watching artist Paul Zelavanky’s powerful 1-minute excerpts from Mister Rogers’ episodes on his YouTube Channel Mister Rogers for Adults.  Take this extraordinary lesson about Discipline, where Rogers interviews Pittsburgh Pirate baseball player Willie Stargell (Video link here):

…And this clip of poet Kenneth Koch (Video link here.)

Rogers asks big questions and then listens.

We’re looking forward to discovering more about the man whose messages to both children and adults was fueled by his belief that

Love is at the root of everything —all learning, all relationships—love or the lack of it. 

The greatest thing we can do is to help somebody know that they are loved, and capable of loving.

 

Rogers’ deeply compassionate way is a balm for our age.

 

Sally Schneider

 

 

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One thought on “Mister Rogers’ for Adults

  1. That is the poet Kenneth Koch, one of my favorite poets. My husband was a student of his at Columbia. Here’s a link to the film “Something Wonderful May Happen” about the NY School of poets. Kenneth recites a section from his poem “The Pleasures of Peace.” http://bit.ly/2hVM3G8

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