*sigh*
I've always been kind of conflicted about Mr. Rogers - the cynical part of me finds it very hard to believe that anyone could possibly be that... good.
After reading this article though, I love him. I can't believe there is anyone who doesn't. They must be made of scorpions and cigarette burns.
I'm not saying that Mister Rogers isn't great, but I have to admit that I don't love him (scorpions and cigarette burns aside).
I think he's done a lot of great things for kids and I think he's an amazing man, but even as a small child I always felt there was something ... off about him. And I think a big part of what bugs me about Mister Rogers is how freaking anal he is. This paragraph from the article you linked to gets at it:
"and Mister Rogers weighed 143 pounds because he has weighed 143 pounds as long as he has been Mister Rogers, because once upon a time, around thirty-one years ago, Mister Rogers stepped on a scale, and the scale told him that Mister Rogers weighs 143 pounds. No, not that he weighed 143 pounds, but that he weighs 143 pounds....
And so, every day, Mister Rogers refuses to do anything that would make his weight change--he neither drinks, nor smokes,nor eats flesh of any kind, nor goes to bed late at night, nor sleeps late in the morning, nor even watches television--and
every morning, when he swims, he steps on a scale in his bathing suit and his bathing cap and his goggles, and the scale tells him he weighs 143 pounds. This has happened so many times that Mister Rogers has come to see that number as a gift, as a destiny fulfilled, because, as he says, "the number 143 means `I love you.' It takes one letter to say I and four letters to say `love' and three letters to say `you.' One hundred and forty-three. `I love you.' Isn't that wonderful?""
I just think that's so creepy. I mean, I view childhood as a big chaotic time where the world is being explored and things are messy and you're allowed to be and try different things. That he doesn't do anything out of control or that would deviate from this random thought he had (that Mister Rogers does and should always weigh the same amount) seems like the antithesis of the spirit of childhood (not to mention the creepy rationalization he has for it). He is just so tidy and precise--even when I was little that made me uncomfortable. I loved the bright colors and music and random chaos of Sesame Street far more than his show.
I get why people love him and I think the world is a better place because he's in it, but I also get why some people don't love him and find him somewhat unsettling.
-- by
Kimberly, at
8/16/2007 1:47 PM