The Simple Faith of Mr. Rogers: Spiritual Insights from the World's Most Beloved Neighbor

by Amy Hollingsworth

the evil one, the accuser. In explaining what he had learned from his mentor, Fred told me, "Evil would like nothing better than to have us feel awful about who we are. And that would be back in here [in our minds], and we'd look through those eyes at our neighbor, and see only what's awful-in fact, look for what's awful in our neighbor."

"To be able to be accepted for who we are and to be able to grow from there is one of the great treasures of life."

sublimation.

sublimation is the process by which socially unacceptable behaviors are channeled-sublimated -into more socially acceptable ways.

"He thought for a moment, and said, `Forgiveness. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do: He said, `You know, Fred, there is one thing that evil cannot stand, and that's forgiveness: That's meant the world to me."

He sighed deeply. "It's one of the toughest things in the world when somebody has hurt you, and you can find within yourself the strength to begin the whole process of forgiveness. And it turns out to be the gift to you, not so much the gift to the person you're forgiving."

encouraging others to be their honest selves, being a good neighbor, and offering forgiveness.

unique. I end the program by saying, `You've made this day a special day by just your being you. There's no person in the whole world like you, and I like you just the way you are.' I feel that if we in public television can only make it clear that feelings are mentionable and manageable, we will have done a great service."

Well, that is a service that the [program] really gives to people because if parents can remember what it was like to be a child, they are going to be much more empathic with their own children."

`Let the kid walk on the wall; he's got to learn to do things for himself.'

They teach us as we help them. For Fred, this

practical outworking of loving our neighbor-using not only our heart and eyes but our hands-is what defined a hero: "To see people who will notice a need in the world and do something about it, and rather than view it with despair they view it with hope-that to me is such an enormous gift in this life. Those are my heroes.

At last I had it: Fred's intense devotion to the disenfranchised, to the least of these, arose from the realization that he was one of them.

To fully see others, we need to recognize who we are as individuals, love our neighbor as ourselves, and forgive often.

Just as he heralded the importance of expressing other kinds of emotions, Fred felt it essential to give others permission to grieve over the losses in their lives. He learned that lesson himself when he was six years old.

"You know, that's a gift that can be passed on for generations," he added, "the gift of knowing that it's all right to express how you're feeling."

As a matter of fact, you are probably one of the best things that has ever happened to your mom and your dad. And they'll love you as long as they live-and even longer.

What is essential is invisible to the eye.

Well, I would want [those] who were listening somehow to know that they had unique value, that there isn't

exactly like them and that there never has been and there never will be. And that they are loved by the Person who created them, in a unique way.

If they could know that and really know it and have that behind their eyes, they could look with those eyes on...

neighbor has unique value too; there's never been anybody in the whole world like my neighbor, and there never will be." If they could value that person-if they could love that person-in ways that we know th...