Ok, so I was a latchkey kid, in a pretty cold home, with borderline abusive punishment, and no exposure to the wide world around. Enter Sesame Street into my life. In fact, enter PBS in general. From Sesame Street I learned to count to ten in Spanish, learned what c-o-o-p-e-r-a-t-i-o-n was, saw hundreds of jobs, Captain Vegetable, and learned that I was valuable and lovable. Sometimes Mr. Rogers was literally the only adult in my life who said "It's YOU I like-not the clothes you wear, or the color of your hair, But YOU I like." He was just a phenomenal human being, as was the incredible Jim Henson. It may sound silly, but I was one of those kids who it really mattered to, changing who I thought I could be, what the possibilities were for my life.
On This American Life, a great radio program from NPR, this grown man talked about how when he and his brother were young, their mother, who was blind and often ill, had a hard time caring for them. They wrote a letter to Mr. Rogers telling him about it. He invited the boy's entire family to his beach house for this long vacation with his family. The boys had no dad, and Mr. Rogers played and horsed around with them, something they were missing so much. The man remembered all the puppets being there, from the land of make believe, but Mr. Rogers corrected him (they have a sweet phone call during the program), saying he never did keep the puppets at the beach house, he just acted out the voices.
The powerful part of this whole story is that Mr. Rogers didn't remember this family. You see, he did this all the time. He felt it was his ministry in the world, and he loved it and soaked up every second.
I stand humbled by his generosity and child like spirit. I watched him roller skate for the first time on his show in his seventies. That is a hero!
We watched the highlights of the early seasons of Sesame Street from Netflix, and one highlight stands out. A very young Jesse Jackson is standing in front of a huge crowd of children, doing this call and response. He would say, "I am somebody" and the children would call it back.
So repeat after me.
" I am somebody."
"I may be poor."
"I may be young."
I may be on welfare."
"But I am somebody."
"I am God's child."
I will close with this quote from Jim Henson, but be sure to scroll down and read the little Kermit poem as well.
"Life is meant to be fun, and joyous, and fulfilling. May each of yours be that-having each of you as a child of mine has certainly been one of the good things in my life. Know that I've always loved each of you with an eternal, bottomless love. A love that has nothing to do with each other, for I feel my love for each of you is total and all encompassing.
Please watch out for each other and love and forgive everybody. It's a good life, enjoy it."
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1 comment:
You are so very correct. As one having had a similar childhood to the one you described (former Foster kid), I can tell you that Mr. Rodgers and Sesame Street were the only family I had for a long time. I miss them all, just the way they were, from Mr. Hooper and David all the way to Big Bird's summer camp friends. I cried at the news that Mr. Rodgers, who was my first hero had been called home. It's nice to know there's someone out there who remembers.
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