enthusiasm is contagious

I love Mr. Rogers. One of my favorite episodes of This American Life is the neighbors episode, where Fred advises Davy Rothbart, of FOUND Magazine, on how to best get along with the people in his neighborhood.

Anyway, lots of my fellow humans have been talking about the horrible actions of the gunman who shot folks in Arizona this past weekend. Lots of attention on Gabrielle Giffords, because she was targeted, but it could be anyone. That she was an elected representative brings attention to the events, and makes it frightening to those in public service, who then pump up the volume. Some people, looking beyond the violence, have stressed the role that mental health care, and in this case, the absence of it, impacted the events that took place. When I was a girl, there was random violence in a MacDonald’s in our state, and for years afterwards whenever I was in a fast food place, I had a low-level anxiety about that possibility. I believe in gun control, because human beings are impulsive, and strange, and flawed. But that’t not what this video is about. This video is about how we can teach young people how to express and handle their feelings. I keep forgetting why Fred Rogers is my hero, and then remembering again. Here’s the key text:

“I feel if we in public television can only make it clear that feelings are mentionable and manageable, we will have done a great service for mental health. I think it’s much more dramatic that two men could be working out their feelings of anger, much more dramatic than showing something of gunfire. I’m constantly concerned about what our children are seeing. And for 15 years I have tried in this country and Canada to present what I feel is a meaningful expression of care.” (…)

“Could I tell you the words of one of the songs which I feel is very important? This has to do with that good feeling of control, which I believe that children need to know is there. And it starts out, ‘What do you do with the mad that you feel?’ and that first line came straight from a child, (…) ‘when you feel so mad you could bite, when the whole wide world feels oh so wrong, and nothing you do seems very right. What do you do? Do you punch a bag? Do you pound some clay or some dough? Do you round up friends for a game of tag, or see how fast you go? It’s great to be able to STOP, when you’ve planned a thing that’s wrong, and be able to do something else instead, and think this song. I CAN STOP when I want to, I CAN STOP when I wish, can STOP STOP STOP anytime, and what a good feeling to feel like this, and know that the feeling is really mine. Know there is something deep inside, that helps us become what we can, for a girl can be someday a lady, and a boy can be someday a man.‘”