March 19, 2009

Won’t you be my neighbor?

sweater cuff drawing

“Imagine what our real neighborhoods would be like, if each of us offered as a matter of course, just one kind word to another person… One kind word has a wonderful way of turning into many.” -Fred Rogers

Tomorrow, March 20, is Mr. Rogers birthday. People all over the world are invited to participate by wearing a sweater, listening to someone, or doing something thoughtful. Since I’m from Pittsburgh, I’ll be celebrating. More information about the day is here, but turn down the volume before you click.

posted by in announcements, clothes, etiquette, television | * | 13 comments 

comments

  1. Sheila Ryan on March 20th, 2009 at 7:13 am

    Mr. Rogers versus the Senate, as posted by Andrew a few years back.

  2. Lucy Foley on March 20th, 2009 at 9:39 am

    Jesus Sheila, you’re like the folk memory of clusterflock.

  3. Michael Smith on March 20th, 2009 at 9:41 am

    Yes! Delete the archives. Remove the search function. So long as we have Sheila we don’t need those things.

  4. Cindy Scroggins on March 20th, 2009 at 10:08 am

    Yes, but Sheila’s not always easy to search. And she goes down sometimes.

  5. Michael Smith on March 20th, 2009 at 10:10 am

    Do we need to buy her a macbook first?

  6. Sheila Ryan on March 20th, 2009 at 10:32 am

    Cindy is right. The Folk Memory of Clusterflock does go down. MacBook not required.

    (Actually, I have been using a MacBook Pro now for a little more than a year, but I don’t know whether I’m the one to judge the extent to which it’s contributed to any improvement — qualitative or quantitative — in my performance.)

  7. Sheila Ryan on March 20th, 2009 at 3:53 pm

    Here ’tis, albeit in different guise.

  8. Sheila Ryan on March 20th, 2009 at 4:16 pm

    The way Fred Rogers overcomes implicit mockery here just makes me sit up straight. It’s the same clip as the one to which I pointed in my previous comment. I just wanted to urge y’all to take a look.

  9. Elizabeth Perry on March 20th, 2009 at 5:08 pm

    Thanks, Sheila.

    Always great to be shown that sincerity can have such power…

    Someone I knew in graduate school interviewed Fred Rogers, planning to write a clever bit of snark – I think it was planned as a follow-up piece to a profile of Bob Eubanks. She came away from the experience a changed writer. She said that she’d never spoken before with someone who listened – really listened – to what she was saying, someone entirely focused on responding to her presence and her words.

    I don’t think we experience that kind of quiet attention to the present moment very often. I’m grateful to Fred Rogers for reminding us of the possibility.

  10. Sheila Ryan on March 20th, 2009 at 5:18 pm

    Quiet attention to the present moment. Yes.

    That can be scary.

    I’m starting to think that Fred Rogers is one of my heroes.

  11. Rick Neece on March 20th, 2009 at 6:51 pm

    Oh, God. Let me be more like Mr. Rogers.

  12. Rick Neece on March 20th, 2009 at 6:52 pm

    For the record, that wasn’t ironic.

  13. Mike Dresser on March 20th, 2009 at 6:59 pm

    Glad to be wearing a cardigan this evening.

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