IT'S A SORROWFUL
DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD...
28 February 2003
We've lost another beloved television icon. The airwaves today have all been full of
the news that MisterRogers lost his battle with stomach cancer at age 73.
I suspect nobody reading this journal ever met Fred Rogers and yet we all
"knew" him. We visited his house every day. We sat in comfy chairs and chatted
with him--and you knew he listened because he always understood. He knew what we were
feeling, what we were scared about. It didn't matter if we were 3 or 30, he talked to us.
When he retired in September of 2001, I wrote a tribute talking of my memories of
watching our kids grow up in MisterRogers' neighborhood. In the fast paced, high tech,
special effects television world, he was an island of calm, and I loved inviting him into my own
neighborhood.
Besides, who else could write a song that went like this:
tree tree tree
tree tree tree
tree tree tree
tree tree tree
Why can't I write lyrics like that? 
It's funny how some of these guys become so much a part of your life that you are moved
to tears at their loss, whether you ever met them or not.
It took me a whole week to recover from Jim Henson's sudden, unexpected death. I don't
know why it hit me so hard. Maybe it was thinking of Kermit without a voice (his son has
taken over; it's not the same). In fact, Kermit still sits in our living room wearing a
black arm band.
I didn't cry when Charles Schulz died, but there was still a period of mourning
for a man who had created characters who were so much a part of our lives. There are
touches of Peanuts, still, all over this house.
Unlike Fred Rogers, Charles Schulz had been a part of my life since my own childhood. I
still remember sitting up in bed on a Sunday morning, reading the comics, convulsed with
laughter at the antics of Snoopy and Lucy.
You didn't get a lot of belly laughs with Fred Rogers, but he told you that you were
special. And I think he made kids believe it. He told us the world was safe.
And we all believed it.
In his later years, I saw him in interview with people like, for example, Katie Couric
and was amused to discover that he spoke with her in the same calm, measured tones that he
used with the children on his television show. It wasn't an act. I suspect that Fred
Rogers was always as he appeared in public. I'd like to think so.
I just saw a report on his death, with Fred Rogers himself saying, "I could say
lots of words, but what matters is if I've made a difference to my neighbor."
He made an indellible mark on the lives of millions of children. He assured them that
everything was going to be all right, even when it was pretty scary out.
When I watch our president talk about the upcoming war, I wish I had Fred Rogers around
to tell me that it's gonna be all right.
Sleep well, MisterRogers. Ya done good.