{"id":963077,"date":"2018-12-10T11:08:40","date_gmt":"2018-12-10T16:08:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/education\/feature-god-and-mother-nature-mister-rogers-and-the-gift-of-the-honest-self\/"},"modified":"2023-09-27T02:34:18","modified_gmt":"2023-09-27T06:34:18","slug":"feature-god-and-mother-nature-mister-rogers-and-the-gift-of-the-honest-self","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/education\/feature-god-and-mother-nature-mister-rogers-and-the-gift-of-the-honest-self\/","title":{"rendered":"Feature: GOD AND MOTHER NATURE: Mister Rogers and the Gift of the Honest Self"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I<\/strong>t\u2019s 1993. Fred Rogers enters a noisy hotel lobby, taking pictures of the people who have come to meet him. You realize that you have lowered the volume of your voice.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I look down at my son, Matthew, who had turned 6 on the day before Halloween. Normally ebullient and outgoing, Matthew is rigid with tension, and I notice that his upper lip is quivering. Rogers smiles and shakes Matthew\u2019s hand and, before long, interrupts his conversation with the two adults and talks directly to Matthew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Noticing that Matthew has pulled a book about rocks out of his little backpack, Mister Rogers tells the boy that he loves rocks, too, and that he owns a lapidary machine, which he keeps in an outbuilding on his property because of its constant whirring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthew\u2019s eyes widen. His own birthday present was a lapidary machine, which right now is in our house rolling and polishing some of the billion or so rocks that he has collected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rogers asks Matthew to show him his book, and now they whisper the secrets of stone.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wonder: How many thousands of other children have Mister Rogers connected with in this way? For most people, such continual expectation of attentiveness would wear thin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He turns to the other reporters in the room and other guests. One asks him what inspired him to pursue television as a career. He recalls, \u201cIt was Easter, 1951, and I saw people on television throwing pies at each other, and I thought, I want to work in that <\/em>medium.\u201d Among his career\u2019s most famous moments was when he gently explained to America\u2019s children what the word assassination meant after Bobby Kennedy was killed in 1968.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To his satirists, his cardigan sweater and soft voice are more bizarre than any clown wig or polka-dot suit; he is that rarest of television creatures: real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I ask how he feels about the frequent impersonations by comedians, especially Eddie Murphy\u2019s scalding sendup on Saturday Night Live, \u201cMister Robinson\u2019s Neighborhood.\u201d He says, in effect, that he does not take such satire personally. It does not hurt him. Not long afterward, he met Murphy, who burst out of his office, arms spread, grinning, and said, \u201cIt\u2019s the real Mister Rogers!\u201d Mister Rogers spread his arms and said, \u201cIt\u2019s the real Mister Robinson!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other impersonations have been\u2026harsher. Legal action was used to stop the Ku Klux Klan from passing out slips of paper in schoolyards in a Midwestern town encouraging children to call a telephone number; a voice sounding like Mister Rogers would answer with racial and religious hate messages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is deeply troubled by the violence and quickening pace of children\u2019s entertainment. He says he does not watch much television himself. When children go to the refrigerator, he says, they assume that what the adults in the family have put in it is not poisonous. Children think of television in the same way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite his anger at TV violence, he stops short of any political statement, any endorsement of proposed legislation to curb the violence, but he does not reject the idea. \u201cThere is so much we can do that has nothing to do with censorship. I know many people in the industry with basically good motives. They\u2019re going to have to limit themselves, even if it means not making quite so many millions of dollars.\u201d In 1993, the internet and smartphones are yet to become issues of concern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He pauses, then says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIsn\u2019t it amazing how much human beings are able to take? I wonder what the breaking point is. But I always look for the faithful remnant. You think that everything is lost and nobody believes in anything that is healthy anymore, and all of a sudden you find this faithful remnant of hope. It\u2019s like my mother said, always look for the helpers. At the edge of any disaster, you will find them.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

As the other reporters leave to meet their deadlines, and the crowd thins out, Rogers turns and walks back to Matthew and me. His smile has nearly disappeared. He leaned close and said he wanted to say something more about the satirists who made fun of him. He said his earlier answer had not been fully honest. He said some of the impersonations, including Eddie Murphy\u2019s, did hurt him at first. But over time he became convinced that Murphy\u2019s was done with affection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He had come to accept the seeming accuracy of some of the impersonations. \u201cI think if I were playing a part, that would really bother me. I don\u2019t play the part of Mister Rogers. I am Mister Rogers.\u201d And he had realized that, regardless of how others may respond, one of the most important gifts a person can give \u201cis the gift of your honest self.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remembering that Rogers is an ordained minister (and this explains something about his essential nature; he is more spiritual friend than an activist), I mention to him that Matthew had asked me a theological question the other day, for which I did not have a good answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat was it?\u201d Rogers asks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMatthew said, `Dad, I\u2019ve been wondering about something. Is God married to Mother Nature, or are they just good friends?\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had involuntarily laughed when my son said this the first time. Like most parents, I don\u2019t always take my children\u2019s pronouncements as seriously as I should, and my sometimes my reactions understandably anger them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mister Rogers does not laugh. \u201cThat\u2019s a very interesting question, Matthew.\u201d He thinks about it for a long moment. \u201cYour mom and your dad are married and they\u2019ve had two fine boys, and they\u2019re mighty important to those two boys, and I think that\u2019s one way we get to know what God and Nature are like, by having a mom and a dad who love us.\u201d Maybe the statement isn\u2019t entirely inclusive (what about single parents?) but the answer seems to work for Matthew, who nods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later, as everyone stands to leave, Mister Rogers walks over and sits next to my son. \u201cWill you let me know, as time goes by, what answer you find to your question?\u201d he asks gently. He is reopening the door to the question, encouraging Matthew to have the last word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is what a real friend does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

____________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Postscript: In 2002, a year before Fred Rogers died, Matthew, then a teenager, sat down at the computer and wrote him a letter sharing his private thoughts about the answer he had found for himself. Mister Rogers sent a note in return, along with a photo of the two of them. He said that he appreciated Matthew\u2019s \u201ckind words about the conversation we had about your question of God and Mother Nature.\u201d He asked him to give his father his personal regards, and added, \u201cMatthew, you\u2019re such a thoughtful young man. I wish you well in all that lies ahead.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

____________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Richard Louv is co-founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Children & Nature Network and the author of eight books, including\u00a0Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0The Nature Principle: Reconnecting with Life in a Virtual Age<\/i>\u00a0(Algonquin). His books have been translated into 12 languages and published in 17 countries and helped launch the international movement to connect children and their families to nature. He is the recipient of the 2008 Audubon Medal. He has served as an adviser to the Ford Foundation\u2019s Leadership for a Changing World award program, is a member of the Citistates Group, serves on the editorial board of Ecopsychology, and appears often on national radio and television programs, including The Today Show, CBS Evening News, and NPR\u2019s Fresh Air, and travels frequently to address international gatherings. In 2010, he delivered the plenary keynote at the national conference of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and in 2012 was the keynote speaker at the first White House Summit on Environmental Education. He has written for\u00a0The New York Times, The Washington Post,\u00a0<\/i>the\u00a0Times of London, Orion, Outside,<\/i>\u00a0and other newspapers and magazines, and was a columnist for\u00a0The San Diego Union-Tribune<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0Parents<\/i>\u00a0magazine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can find the original publication on Child and <\/a>Nature<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author Richard Louv shares a story about the day his son met the REAL Fred Rogers – reprinted with permission…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":963081,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-963077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ed-scoop"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-28 22:38:54","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963077"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=963077"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":963080,"href":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963077\/revisions\/963080"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/963081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=963077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=963077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=963077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}