What Mr. Rogers would say about the coronavirus

In the past week, I have had a sense that Mister Rogers is calling out to me. This sensation surfaced when I heard the distressing news that Tom Hanks and his wife have tested positive for COVID-19. Nowadays I associate Hanks with Mister Rogers because of Hanks’s pitch-perfect portrayal of Mister Rogers in the 2019 film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. For this reason, Hanks’s announcement caused me to think about Mister Rogers. A few days later, Hanks sent out an update in which he paraphrased Mister Rogers’ advice to “look for the helpers” in times of stress, and again I started thinking about Mister Rogers. Then I visited my favorite bookstore, and I noticed Gavin Edward’s Kindness and Wonder: Why Mister Rogers Matters Now More Than Ever. I took it off the shelf and learned that Edwards lives in Charlotte, which makes him a neighbor of mine. I bought the book and read it the next day.

I first became a fan of Mister Rogers in 1972 while working in a daycare center. The center owned a television, but nobody turned it on until late in the afternoon when the parents came to pick up their children. About 4:00 somebody turned on the television just in time for the remaining children to watch Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. Sometimes the children would feel anxious if their parents were late, but Mister Rogers’ reassuring voice and words of advice always calmed them. I feel we could all benefit from hearing Mister Rogers’ reassuring voice and wise counsel as we contend with the stresses associated with the coronavirus outbreak.

Edwards’ Kindness and Wonder came out in 2019, so it predates the coronavirus outbreak, but it strikes me as being especially relevant for our current situation. In the second half of his book, Edwards distills Mister Rogers’ approach to life down to “ten ways to live more like Mister Rogers right now.” For this column, I will focus on how four of these ways can guide our response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Edwards writes that one way to live more like Mister Rogers is to “be kind to strangers.” This advice is appropriate for us now that we must maintain social distance between ourselves and others. Such distancing could easily cause us to see each other as potential threats, but Mister Rogers wouldn’t want us to view our fellow humans as threats. We should still be kind to the clerk at the grocery store who is dealing daily with panicked shoppers. We should still tip generously the food and delivery workers. We should thank the mail carriers and other service workers who are trying to keep our society functioning.

According to Edwards, another way we can emulate Mister Rogers is to “tell the truth.” As Edwards points out, when Mister Rogers was “communicating with children, he carefully double-checked everything that came out of his mouth to make sure that he wasn’t accidentally misleading them.” This advice is especially pertinent to our governmental officials. We need accurate information to help us cope with this crisis. When politicians say misleading things, they just make matters worse.

Edwards suggests that an additional way we can live like Mister Rogers is to “connect with other people every way you can.” Edwards explains how Mister Rogers connected with other people by acknowledging their unique circumstances and by empathizing with their feelings. During this crisis, we should follow Mister Rogers’ example and cultivate our connections with other people. We should put ourselves in the shoes of the athlete whose season has just been canceled. We should identify with the waitress who has suddenly lost her job. To the extent that we can help one another, we should. However, even when we can’t help, we should still attempt to make connections with other people by empathizing with the particulars of their lives.

Finally, Edwards tells us that in order to live more like Mister Rogers we should “make a joyful noise.” Mister Rogers believed in finding joy where we can, and for him that involved music. I am reminded of a video I recently saw of hundreds of self-quarantined Italians boisterously singing “Volare” from their balconies. If these Italians can take pleasure in music, then we should still find plenty to feel joyful and thankful about even in the face of this crisis.

For my part, I am thankful that Mister Rogers came calling just when I needed him.