A Memory About Mister Rogers
I watched The Unforgivable Sin of Ms Rachel by Lindsay Ellis. In short, it's about empathy in the context of both history and recent events. It's very good, but it may be a bit long for some at about two hours and twenty minutes.
This post is not about that video, but instead it reminded me of a poster I won in school.
When I was in fourth grade, my school was holding a fundraising contest. You bought tickets, which could win you a poster of a celebrity that some local artists painted. I don't really remember now most of the portraits that were painted, but I do remember wanting to win one. I just wanted to win a thing, I didn't have a lot of opportunities for that. What with me being in fourth grade.
I had some money on me, so I bought a ticket and wrote my name on it. They told me to pick a number, so I did and wrote that down. Some days later passed, and the winners were announced. I was one of them, and pretty excited to have won something. I get it, and it's a poster of Mister Rogers. I was not very exicted about winning it. The other kids teasing me about it didn't help.
It turns out that the number I wrote down corresponded to a number assigned to the poster. So everyone was entering a ticket and selecting the poster they wanted, and I selected Mister Rogers. I clearly did not understand that when I bought the ticket. I just picked a number I liked.
At home, my mom congratulated me on winning. I relayed my frustration with winning Mister Rogers. She did a "mom" thing, and told me a rumor about him. Something that was supposed to make him seem cool to a boy growing up in the nineties. The rumor, by the way, was that he wore long sleeves because his arms were covered in tattoos. He was supposedly a Marine or Green Beret or something.
Now, I will admit that I thought that was both cool and interesting. And, if you're unsure, that rumor is untrue. Fred Rogers was never in the armed forces, nor was he covered in tattoos.
My point though is that it shouldn't have been necessary. I shouldn't have needed some dumb rumor about sleeve tattoos to make him seem cool or interesting. He was both of those things and more. He was a beacon of empathy and kindness, which we needed then and we sorely need now.
I wish young me had known then what I know now. I would have told those other kids to pound sand becuase I like Mister Rogers. There was no other person in the world like him, and I like him just the way that he was.