Please won't you be...

Mister (Fred) Rogers would have been 98 yesterday. His birthday, March 20^th, is celebrated annually to honor his legacy. Whether you live in cardigan-wearing country or not[1], Mister Rogers Day, aka “Won’t You Be My Neighbor Day” encourages acts of kindness and community building, and accepting of neighbors regardless of All The Things. It promotes the values he shared on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and his advocacy for early childhood education.

I didn’t appreciate Mister Rogers well enough as a young person. Maybe I was too busy to slow down and listen. Maybe I thought I was too old, or too cool, or too something-else-altogether. Or, worse, maybe, probably, I thought I was not-enough to be part of his gentle world.

As an adult—a grown-up in his vernacular—I appreciate the lessons of peace, understanding, and inclusion that he taught in the Neighborhood, and his promotion of a love of reading and books as a door into a world of knowledge and imagination. I honor his legacy of kindness and empathy.

He was a gentleman. And a Gentle Man.

I adore the lessons and stories he shared in his own books and interviews, lessons for all of us. He knew that kids, all kids, are curious! Even kids that are in big grown-up bodies. He would love us to indulge the questions and curiosity of others. Think of the possibilities! Actual conversations about things that excite and intrigue us. Engaging with our neighborhood and our world. Connections, not divisions.

His lessons of kindness and acceptance apply to individuals, too. I am living with multiple autoimmune conditions and the lingering effects of Post Sepsis Syndrome. Mister Rogers reminds me to be gentle with myself. That not everyday is sunshiny, and (not but) that’s okay. That showing up the best that I can is a win. Being kind to myself will help me show up again.

Back in the day, he also showed that magic can be made by simply drawing a smiley face. I’m going to go draw a smiley face on the sidewalk for my neighbors. And for me.

And then I’ll put a book or two in the Little Free Libraries on my block, and say “hello” to all the dogs.

Have a gentle day.

[1] —I won't be donning a cardi

: the warmest March temperatures in the recorded history of the planet were just measured here on Mister Rogers Eve—

illustration created using wix ai