I spent last week watching the public impeachment hearings and found it hard to shake a feeling of discouragement. The complete unwillingness of the Republicans in Congress and the White House to engage in good faith with the constitutional processes of presidential oversight made me worried and sad. Its possible that our revered governing structures will not be strong enough to protect us from people who are more interested in retaining power than upholding American values. I fear for our country's future.
Fortunately for my mood and the mood of those around me, Mister Rogers came to the rescue. On Saturday I went to the theater to see It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. I rarely go to movies these days, but I very much wanted to see if Tom Hanks could evoke the calm presence of Fred Rogers that so charmed my children (and me) when they were little.
I didn't always appreciate Mister Rogers. When he was on TV at first I was in my twenties and childless. I thought he was absurdly hokey and simplistic, cue the eye roll and sarcastic laugh. By the early eighties, when my boys were born, he had returned to television after a hiatus and was therefore available for them. Thank goodness. They loved him and by watching with them I began to realize that he was slow and quiet, but not at all simple. He seemed to talk directly with children about serious things, unlike any other kids' show I've ever seen. He was manifestly unslick and non-commercial, again different from other kiddy TV. My children couldn't articulate why they liked him, but they watched every day and sometimes the things they saw gave me an opening to talk with them about being scared or sad. Like so many others I grew to admire and value what he offered to us through the screen and I cried when I heard of his death.
Because people revere Mister Rogers, playing him in a movie could not have been easy, but I thought Tom Hanks inhabited him very authentically. My favorite part though, was made not by acting but by scripting and cinematography. When Fred and Lloyd (another character in the movie) go out to eat at a Chinese restaurant, Fred asks Lloyd to take a minute and think about all the people who loved him into being. At this point the movie stops for a literal minute. At first I am just waiting for something to happen, but then the camera begins to move away from Fred and Lloyd and take in the other people in the restaurant. They had been pure background up to this point....props in a restaurant scene....but now without dialog or action I become aware of each one individually. Varied in age and ethnicity, they are completely ordinary but suddenly compelling. I begin to wonder about them....who they are, what has shaped them, how they come to be in that restaurant at that time... and then the movie begins again and goes on with the story of Fred and Lloyd. It was a truly moving and insightful moment created by movie magic that reminded me of the beauty and power of human beings and the myriad events, emotions, instincts and reasons that shape us into the particular manifestations of life that we are. Each of us.
Someone, maybe Einstein or maybe Fred Rogers, said that the essential is invisible. Being reminded of the depth of humanity has helped smooth my fears about our future into something manageable. By experiencing each other through media of various descriptions we get flattened into stereotypes and caricatures, but we are very complicated and capable of surprising each other. Keeping that in mind, as Mister Rogers did, may offer a key to moving forward together.
I would like to wish everyone Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you will spend it with people you love.