I met Mr. Rogers early in life, like a lot of people did. He was someone on TV that had a show that I watched. I watched, but I didn’t take it in. It was another show on the screen. But I only started to learn about him recently, and I can’t quite bring myself into believing he was real. I know he’s real, mind you; there’s footage and books and articles and essays and first hand events about him for days.
But I look at the world and all the horrible things that are and have been, and it’s hard to believe that there’s someone like him who stands so quietly before these bad things and people, humble in his nature and his bearing, caring in his actions, and looks at the good and acts to bring it to the forefront and wants to help people heal and grow and become better than they are so that they can help others without ever seeming to need a word of thanks but takes it graciously as though those simple words are the most important treasures in the world.
I’m a cynic or a realist, depending on what’s happening on the day you ask me. I don’t or won’t want to believe that there’s people out there that are like that. But there’s Mr. Rogers and a legacy he’s left. And fuck me if I’m crying while writing this because there was a man of that quality in this world and I hope to be a fraction as good as he was by the time I get to the end of it all.
