Tonight's picture was taken in November of 2008. Mattie was home recovering from two limb salvaging surgeries. We had a hospital bed in our living room while Mattie was convalescing as it was vital that parts of the bed moved to support Mattie's body appropriately. As you can see Nurse Patches came to the rescue and stuck close to Mattie. This was before we had to board Patches at our vet. Because we spent so much time in the hospital, we were unable to care for Patches and give her daily meds. So she lived at our vet's office for over a year. Mattie missed Patches and he wanted her to visit him in the hospital, but we were never allowed to make that happen.
Quote of the day: Appreciation can change a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary. ~ Margaret Cousins
I am not sure what I was expecting to see in this movie! Perhaps learn more about this soft spoken giant and how his own life influenced his career, ideas, and in essence caused him to be a champion and advocate for childhood mental health.
However, if you go into this movie with this premise, you are going to be disappointed. This movie did a great job at portraying Mister Rogers' personality, outlook on life, and his love and deep interest for every individual he met. In a way he was the consummate therapist. You could ask him a question, but instead of talking about himself and sharing, he turned around the question and the next thing you know he has you talking about yourself. Certainly a great quality for therapist or preacher, but I am not sure I could have handled this in a spouse or parent.
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is "a sort-of-but-not-really biographical picture (from USA Today)" that chronicles the time Mister Rogers formed an uncanny friendship with a cynical investigative journalist, for the magazine Esquire. In typical Hollywood fashion, one could have thought that this relationship was manufactured to tell a story and to help us understand Mister Rogers personality and life. However, after some digging on the internet, Mister Rogers was indeed interviewed by an Esquire writer by the name of Tom Junod.
In real life Rogers helped to shift how Tom Junod defined masculinity:
"A lot of men think holding on to your anger and holding grudges fortifies your own sense of machismo and is necessary to being a man in this world," he says. "And Fred in so many ways says, 'You don’t have to do that. Let it go.' And to this day that is something that affects me and guides me."
The one line in the movie that caught my attention was.... EVERYTHING MENTIONABLE IS MANAGEABLE. A direct quote from Rogers. Which truly is the premise of counseling and positive mental health. As giving words to feelings and sharing them with others we ultimately feel empowered in a positive manner.
It was late in the day, and the train was crowded with children who were going home from school. Though of all races, the schoolchildren were mostly black and Latino, and they didn't even approach Mister Rogers and ask him for his autograph. They just sang. They sang, all at once, all together, the song he sings at the start of his program, "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" and turned the clattering train into a single soft, runaway choir.One thing I noticed was that people in the theater were glued to the movie. You could have heard a pin drop. But with that said, I have more questions about Rogers life than answers and I truly would have loved to learn more about his anger that is mentioned in the movie, his issues with his sons, and how this influenced his career and life choices.
I end tonight's posting with a clip of Rogers testifying before congress in 1969. He was trying to encourage congress to fund PBS so children could have access to quality TV. It is a short clip......................
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