Like many of you I scurried off to the theatre to see the film “A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood” starring Tom Hanks and Matthew Rhys. It was not quite what I expected as the film really centered on the character Lloyd Vogel, played by Rhys and his relationship with his father. Don’t worry I am not going to tell you the story. No spoiler alert needed! But I will tell you that the opening scene with Mr. Rogers quickly introduces the word forgiveness into the dialogue. The movie is well worth seeing and I recommend it to you.
I have written about Fred Rogers before. Our “Films That Make You Think” group watched the documentary about hims entitled, “Won’t You Be My Neighbour”. Fred Rogers was a Presbyterian ministry, ordained to the ministry of children’s presenter and educator. He devoted his life to helping children understand hard and difficult things in life; things like violence and racism and divorce.
I saw Tom Hanks interviewed on one of the talk shows recently. He is making the rounds promoting the movie. He talked about Fred Rogers and explained that he had to listen to tapes and watch old episodes to get the slow measure of speech and develop the cadence of Mr. Roger’s voice. Hanks explained that one of the ‘take-aways’ from his research on Fred Rogers was the reminder “WAIT”. When asked to explain he said that Mr. Rogers lived with the reminder WAIT – which in his mind stood for, “Why Am I Talking”. Going on to say that you learn a lot more about a person if you listen than if you talk. Mr. Rogers was a slow talker and a big listener. He touched many people with kindness, openness and understanding.
I am going to try and remember to WAIT and see what I will learn as I do.
