A nice collection of thoughts that were important to Mister Rogers, after a charming introduction by his wife. It's much like the one I reviewed shortly after I started this blog, and my thoughts about this one are much the same now as they were then.
A couple of the aphorisms that struck me:
I need thinking time when someone asks me
a searching question. I wonder why it seems
to be so uncomfortable for many people to
wait through the silence. People of all ages
have deep feelings, and if we have the
patience to wait through the silence, it's
often astounding what people will tell us. (45)
As a relationship matures, you start to see
that just being there for each other is
the most important thing you can do, just being
there to listen and be sorry with them, to be
happy with them, to share all that there is
to share. (68)
How our words are understood doesn't
depend just on how we express our ideas.
It also depends on how someone receives
what we're saying. I think the most
important part about communicating is the
listening we do beforehand. When we can
truly respect what someone brings to what
we're offering, it makes the communication
all the more meaningful. (78)
Where would any of us be without teachers--
without people who have passion for their
art or their science or their craft and love it
right in front of us? What would anf of us
do without teachers passing on to us what
they know is essential about life? (94)
The most important moments are rarely in
the bright lights with the cameras rolling and
mikes recording. The most important
moments are rarely center stage; the most
often happen "in the wings."
Have you found that to be true, too? That
what you expected to be the big occasion or
the main event turned out to be merely an
excurse for you to be somewhere in order to
be touched by something you might have
otherwise considered of little importance? (137)
Mister Rogers exemplifies a lot of what I think I'd like to be, as a person. And though I often find this sort of collection to be a touch trite, this one never slips into that trap. It's worth a read.
