Sidenote and funny story: I dated a guy once and somehow we got on the subject of how much we liked Mister Rogers as kids. If it had been a competition, he would have won with this story. He had a record player in the corner of his room and he was listening to a Mister Rogers record. He must have been around 4ish? His mom walked in on him and he was peeing on the record player. His mom said, "What are you doing?" He proudly responded, "I'm showing Mister Rogers that I can pee like a big boy!" I'm pretty sure I cried from laughter when he told me that story.
Ok, back to my story...I watched an episode of Mister Rogers Neighborhood and quickly remembered why I liked him. He looked directly into the camera and established a level of intimacy with the viewer. He asked me, the viewer, questions. I remember as a kid answering him. "I'm going to color with crayons today. Do you like coloring with crayons?" "YES, Mister Rogers, I do!" Anyway, at the end of the episode he said, "I like you just the way you are. There's no one else in the world like you and that's what makes you special." My eyes aren't watering, yours are! Yes, that's one of the many reasons I loved watching Mister Rogers as a kid. He had such a warm, calm, inviting demeanor...it felt so safe.
It's easy to go down the "youtube black hole" isn't it? One minute you're watching videos on ways to style a scarf, then the next minute you're watching a video of how to build a villa off the coast of Greece with road gutter scraps. Not that that has ever happened to me or anything. Anyway, I stumbled upon an old Charlie Rose interview from the early/mid-'90's. Mister Rogers was talking about how we're inundated with information and crave more. "How do we, as people who work in media, encourage people to value silence?" That was before everyone had a smartphone (facebook, twitter, instagram, snapchat, etc.), tablet, laptop and multiple monitors...can you imagine what he would think of our information overload, today? After thinking about it, he was quite right. Often times, I reach for my phone out of sheer boredom. Is it so horrible to be quiet and alone with thoughts? Or not even thoughts, just surroundings?
Yesterday, I put my phone away, turned off my radio and told myself I would sit through every red light on my commute home, without looking at my phone or calling a friend to catch up and help pass the time. I'm a multi-tasker, see. I won't die if I actually sit through a light with no other distraction, will I? It was hard. At the first red light, my hand - on autopilot - dug into my bag and grabbed my phone. It was halfway out of my bag before my brain registered and said, "halt, you! Put the phone away!" Uggh, what to do with all of that time just sitting there, waiting!! I managed to get through the first red light. Shockingly, I noticed businesses along my normal commute that I had never noticed before. Then it happened. Out. Of. Nowhere. An earworm...
"What would you DoOOOoo foooorrrrr a Klondike bar?" What? Where did that come from? Oh lawd, make it stop!
That evening, when I arrived home, I never took my phone out of my bag. I thought, wow, I haven't looked at it in hours (sorry, friends and family members who I didn't get back to until this morning). I wouldn't say it's a first because I'm not shackled to my phone to the extent that I see other people, but I'm much more reliant than I would like to be. I mean, how can you be "present" if you can't sit for 5 minutes without needing electronic stimulation??
P.S. I did go to the theater and watch "Won't You Be My Neighbor." I cried. A lot. As soon as my eyes dried, something else would happen to start the water works again. I looked around and noticed others wiping tears from their eyes, too.
The movie was remarkable. It will tug at your heartstrings. It will make you leave, wanting to be a better person. The kind of person Mister Rogers knew you could be when he talked to you from the other side of the t.v. screen so many years ago.
