Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Many of my earliest memories are of shades: purple and blue mountains on a Jazz basketball; the orange fur of Crash Bandicoot; the green and red of Luke and Vader’s lightsabers clashing in the dark; the warm and comforting reds, greens, yellows, and light blues that comprised Mr. Rogers’ set. Because I was rather blind as a child – and didn’t realize it was unusual that traffic lights at night looked like smaller and more colorful blasts of sun rays – I adored color. Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood was a treasure trove of color and safety. I loved the details that Rogers focused on: trading his suit coat for his sweater, tying his shoes just right, and feeding the fish. I’m convinced my love of small details in film (looking at you, Scorsese) comes from these childhood experiences.

This documentary gave me a look into the man that filled my early imagination with the different shades of life, often leaving me in silent wonder.  His candid speech about modulations in life, helping others through the valleys and mountaintops of their lives, was delightful to me because it is what I seek to do teaching high school everyday, and I too struggle with the same self-awareness: what if it’s all too much, a stretch too far? What if I’m not up to the challenge? Who am I to try to succeed and fail, and to try again? Rogers was a genuinely good man, with challenges and desires, successes and failures; a man who struggled with his legacy in the face of often horrible events but continued to put on his sweater and tie his shoes, making children’s lives better, even if only for a little while. 

What I learned from this documentary is to remember who got us to where we are today and to live our lives in such a way as to honor their love and sacrifice.