UNDER THE MICROSCOPE

NEW SPECIMENS OLD SPECIMENS THE SCIENTIST MY LOG CONTACT ME
2003-02-27 - 11:43 a.m.

A SAD DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

It�s a sad day in my neighborhood, a sad day for a neighbor. Mr. Rogers has died. Luckily, his program �Mr. Roger�s Neighborhood,� will live after him. Still, I will miss him and so will Kat.

Day-Hay was never a Mr. Roger�s child. He didn�t move quickly enough for her�but then she wasn�t exactly a �Sesame Street� child either even though it moved faster. She just wasn�t much of a television child. She�d occasionally watch Disney�s �Fantasia,� at least until the part with the �mean mountain.� She liked Disney�s �Beauty and the Beast.� But most of children�s television did nothing for her, probably because she would have had to slow down to view something new.

Kat, on the other hand, loved Mr. Rogers. She loved the story-telling with the puppets. Kat, my literary child, loved learning about divorce in puppet storylines. Like me, she had a very big soft spot for Lady Elaine, that Lucy of the Neighborhood. She rooted for the timid Daniel and sighed over the bossiness of the King. She also loved the segments on how things were made. �Sesame Street,� which she also liked, showed the making of suitcases and crayons but Mr. Rogers talked about them as well. For an auditory learner, the explanation was as important as the demonstration.

Kat, my magical thinker in the best sense, believed she was special in part because Mr. Rogers told her so. (Day-Hay was more cynical. As she explained, �If everyone is special, what�s so special about being special?�) Mr. Rogers was gentle and understanding but Kat knew where he stood. He stood for good and he was consistent. He was dependable.

And how has the difference in the girls played out today? Well, Kat does not treasure the gentle teachers anymore. She eats them for breakfast. She prefers a sarcastic edge to her male teachers. By contrast, Danielle likes gentle, male teachers. The religious school teacher she�s had for the last three years is the closest to a Mr. Rogers for the middle school set that I�ve met and, since she�s been in his class, she no longer complains about going.

But today�s preferences matter little to me right now. Mr. Rogers was important in our lives. Yes, his program will go on without him. But today we live in a world without Mr. Rogers.

Mr. Philately would (and did) say that Mr. Rogers would expect us to know that love doesn�t die. And so, as I put on my sneakers or my sweater, I�ll remember. He also would want us to know the neighborhood can be beautiful without him�and he expects us to make it so.

I�ll try not to let him down.

LAST YEAR: The Younger Child Blues

LAST FIVE ENTRIES:

Out to Get Me
Ah Ha!
Bath Salts
For This?
A League of Someone Else�s

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