Mr. Rogers and your priest

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ontheway1

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As I listened to the sermon today I was struck by the sound of my priest’s voice. Yes. I heard Mr. Rogers delivering the sermon. The same monotone. The same lack of emotion. Don’t know if this is good or bad.
Any of you have a similar experience?
 
ontheway1 said:
The same lack of emotion
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? I think you are mistaking Roger’s deliberately slow pace and calmness for lack of emotion.

I could listen to Mr. Rogers talk about fiberglass insulation for 3 hours and find it therapeutic, even today. I even borrow some things Mr. Rogers said to me when I was a kid to say to my daughter: “you make every day special just by being you.”
 
As a child, I always thought Mr. Roger’s voice was creepy. I didn’t find it calming at all. I found it suspicious. I know that he had many very good things to say, but his delivery made me turn him off the moment I saw his sweater coming. When I got old enough to realize that he was the one who did the puppet voices, it creeped me out even more. Why should a person need to communicate through dead-eyed puppets? Why not just talk to people normally? Oddly enough, I never had a problem with Kermit or Big Bird, but I wanted nothing to do with that sunburned old witch or that ratty tiger. Don’t tell my husband though because he absolutely idolized Mr. Rogers and watched him every day. The only segments of the show I liked was when he went out into the “neighborhood” to see how stuff was done or made.
 
Hmmm, it wasn’t my taste either, but I’m sure he had some good messages! 🙂 I got distracted and posted this video because I thought it was special.

With my ADD, I’m pretty sensitive to delivery during a homily. Too monotone or too slow, and I can’t follow it at all.
 
We actually went to a different parish for Mass today that’s walking distance from our house. Normally, we go to the parish where my husband works, but we had a lot of snow this weekend and I didn’t want to mess with the car, so we went to the one just at the opening of our subdivision. That priest was so muttery and there was so much feedback on his microphone, I really couldn’t get most of what he was saying, even trying my hardest. Eventually, I just gave up and spent that part of Mass thinking about life and praying.
 
I had the completely opposite reaction. Mr. Rogers was fantastic. I loved the introduction, the sweaters, the shoes. I loved Daniel Tiger and trolley. I don’t find him creepy at all. That people find him “creepy” says more about the sad state of society than anything about the Rev. Fred Rogers. I am a better person because he was my neighbor growing up.
 
(Full disclosure—I’m a huge fan of Mr. Rogers).

I think he spoke on purpose in that slow, deliberate, way, because he was consciously trying to interact in a way that he felt was an antidote to the overly frenetic and fast-paced children’s television programs that were on the at the time. In this sense he was way ahead of his time. My kids visibly slow down and respond with full attention to his show (I play old broadcasts for them). May not work for all kids, but works for mine!

He talks about his approach in his famous exchange with Senator Pastore (Which you can find on YouTube). It’s definitely worth watching.
 
That was the thing that made it so strange. It was deliberate and not at all natural, like he was talking to a person who he thought was incredibly slow. Or he was really trying hard not to seem mad when he really wanted to smack them.
 
OR maybe people just prefer to communicate in different ways and that’s okay. All I can say is, I grew up able to freely discuss my feelings with both other children and adults and I didn’t need a puppet to do it.
 
My kids got a Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood DVD for Christmas this year and neither of them attended to it for very long, to my husband’s disappointment. They both LOVE the Daniel Tiger show though and have both used the social skills they have learned from that show in real life, even going as far as to sing the songs that go with them when they are having a problem.
 
I guess my problem is that he does not seem very masculine at all. But’ he’s a very good guy. I can see how his calming, pleasant voice would be attractive to many children, though.
 
When my daughter was little I first heard there was a show called “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” and I was like “wait a second…there was a Daniel Tiger on Mr. Rogers…is this related?” And sure enough it was. It became the first kid’s show my daughter really got into. It hasn’t been on as much since she has gotten a bit older, but she did like when the Platypus family moved into the neighborhood. 🙂
 
When my daughter first started watching him, I thought he was going to be another Calliou. It was the point in the series where they were dealing with all of his jealousy over his new baby sister and I basically thought, “Yikes, what a brat! Why would they even suggest that negativity to a kid in the first place?” I didn’t really understand the premise of the show though. I actually turned it off for a while because all of Daniel’s constant whining and jealousy made my palms itch. The whole idea is to teach kids the strategies to deal with frustrations, anger, jealousy, etc. Obviously, you can’t teach that if the kid doesn’t ever see the character getting frustrated, angry, jealous etc. Once I began to see how my kids actually do use those strategies to deal with their real life social situations, I let Daniel Tiger come on again. Now that we’ve seen more of the series, it isn’t always Daniel that’s being the brat anymore, so it’s a little more tolerable.
 
I had an uncle who always adopted that kind of demeanor when talking to kids. He was a preschool teacher and I think he believed that the children were naturally intimidated because he was a man (and a pretty big man at that.) and if he talked incredibly slow and low, they would feel more comfortable. Since I knew him outside of preschool, I knew he was “talking down” to kids and I never liked it.
 
I think part of it is maybe just his personality that he speaks so, and perhaps the acting or scripting was a bit stiff, for lack of a better expression.
 
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I can’t believe anyone would talk bad about Mr. Rogers

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Interesting. Are you an eastern rite Catholic. I’ve never seen that icon before. 🤔
 
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