Mister Rogers Tells It Like It Is: “I Like You Just the Way You Are”

Start 2017 with this message from Mister Rogers.

Here is a transcript:

You know it happens so often I walk down the street and someone twenty or thirty or forty years old will come up to me and say, “You are Mister Rogers aren’t you?”

And then they tell me about growing up with the neighbourhood and how they’re passing on to the children they know what they found to be important in our television work. Like expressing their feelings through music and art and dance and sports and drama and computers and writing and…and invariably we end our little time together with a hug.

I’m just so proud of all of you who have grown up with us and I know how tough it is some days to look with hope and confidence on the months and years ahead. But I would like to tell you what I often told you when you were much younger: I like you just the way you are.

And what’s more I’m so grateful to you for helping the children in your life to know that you’ll do everything you can to keep them safe and to help them express their feelings in ways that will bring healing in many different neighbourhoods.

It’s such a good feeling to know that we’re lifelong friends.

My takeaway from this is that we can be just the way we are. We must develop our own voices to best express our experiences rather than to pretend to be someone else. This honesty will bring us the healing that we need.