Mr. Rogers

[grinninfoole]

When I was a little boy, I absolutely adored my father. When he would come home from work, I would run down the front hall and fling myself into his arms. And, when I was very small, I used to love Mr. Rogers. Of course, I used to have trouble understanding that Mr. Rogers wasn't my dad. They did look and dress very much alike (and are almost the same age), of course, but looking back, I think Mr. Rogers was something of the dad I wanted to have, but didn't, someone who didn't raise his voice, someone who was very patient and always very interested in me, someone who had a whole show just for me every day. I know it wasn't true, but back then I think maybe I needed it to be.

And now that phantom father is dead.

Comments

Mr. Rogers

[millari.livejournal.com]

When I was a little boy, I absolutely adored my father. When he would come home from work, I would run down the front hall and fling myself into his arms.

You know, he may not have been good at saying so, but I bet he loved that.

Thanks to the traditional nuclear family setup, dads can easily seem to their children to be mysterious, inaccessible and a bit unfathomable. Unlike when there is a stay at home mom, the kids only get to see dad so many hours of their waking day. By the time I was five or six and began hanging out with other little kids, I realized that my dad was very different from most others in this respect. Because he worked in restaurants, he was home all morning and I got to be around him until about three in the afternoon. When you're not in school, this is some pretty significant kid time. It's prime time for games and various other forms of togetherness.

I feel very lucky in this respect. As much as my dad could drive me (and I'm sure vice versa) crazy as I got to be a teenager, I never lost a core sense of simpatico with his outlook on life, and I don't think I ever lost my respect for his passion for living. From him, I get my sense of adventure, my love of discovering new places, and my willingness to try something new simply because I haven't before. I love my mom, and in some ways, am more comfortable conversing on a deeper level with her, but in so many ways, I'm totally my dad's daughter, good and bad parts included.

As a life-long minister in the Philadelphia area, I think Mr. Rogers must have had more than enough time around children during his life to understand exactly how to instantly connect with them. Mr. Rogers had the kind of time that the average 9-5 working man trying to support his family, like your dad, sadly never did.

Not to get too rambling all over the place, but I'm somehow reminded right now of something related to the World Trade Center disaster. I remember once hearing W. giving a speech about it, maybe a month or so afterwards. In this speech, he tried to evoke the human pathos of the event by singling out certain victims and telling a little bit about their lives. He told like four or five stories about different people from different walks of life - stockbrokers, janitors, secretaries, maintenance men, etc.

What really struck me as outrageous and sad in his speech was not what W. intended, I think. Because the one common thread I noticed in all these people's stories was how these people had all been victims of the WTC because they had all been in to work early that day. The maintenance man was there doing a double overnight shift because he was a nice guy, and recent staff cuts had left the crew shorthanded. The junior stockbroker was there early because his wife was pregnant with their first child and he was worried about earning enough money to support the expanding family. The secretary was there because she'd agreed to come in to work before opening time to get stuff ready for some big staff meeting. All these people were as much victims of a capitalist system that made them utterly dependent on money and had no qualms about bullying them into sacrifice more and more of their time and personal life to it.

Mr. Rogers had a great deal, when you think about it. He got to stay in all day and the kids of the world loved him. Would that all fathers had that.

[-solstyce-.livejournal.com]

you'll always have the reruns!! i bet they'll come out with a dvd collection or something and you can have mr. rogers to your heart's content! :) the good thing about phantom people is that they always live in the tv.

i got millari's message about bowling - i think the message came too late! i got it monday afternoon. screw you, umass voicemail system! anyway, thanks so much for the invite. we always get voicemails a day or two after the fact, so email's probably the best bet for getting ahold of me. :)