Thank You Mr. Rogers

From the Tao Te Ching:

The true leader leads from behind

Taoism was not a religion which was invented by a leader to set forth a way of being. It was not an invented religion. It was a description of the ways of the great sages who came before "Taoism." In this way it is unlike any other religion or philosophy. Taoism did not teach the people, the people taught taoism.

If you wish to know the way of the great sages, you need look no further than Mr. Rogers.

Mr. Rogers led from the bottom, and yet I believe that his silent impact on people in our century will have been greater than many political so called "leader."

Mr. Rogers taught a message of peace, sympathy and inclusion that was beautiful. Though he had been a minister, he refused to ever mention religion in his show, because he said that he would be devastated "if any child ever felt excluded from the neighborhood." He defined "injustice" as not taking care of the people who can't take care of themselves, and in a calm and forgiving tone, he said that this injustice made him very angry. Most importantly, he said the very purpose of the neighborhood was to teach children that THEY were special, not because of their things, but because of themselves, and that the greatest gift any person could give was just to be themselves-- it's the only unique gift that we're capable of giving, and that every person is worthy of our love. He believed that it was insecurity that drove people to take more that their fair share.

But his message was only the beginning of his teaching. Just as in the Lotus sermon, where the Buddha silently held aloft a lotus blossom and appreciated it's beauty, Mr. Roger showed us.

Today, who will teach the children?

Modern TV and Video games don't "entertain" us. They do not act on us by telling us stories or by communicating with our minds-- Modern TV acts on the human body directly-- TV shows are now designed to trigger the FIGHT OR FLIGHT mechanism. They trigger a release of chemicals into the blood and make us feel liker we're being chased by a band of viscous cave men. And this is very exciting.

When I was a child, we had cartoons in the morning and after school, and on the weekend there was Saturday morning. The rest of the time we had to entertain ourselves. And we had Mr. Rogers to entrance us and to relax and calm us. Today, children have 24 hour a day cartoons and video games. Furthermore, the Cartoons have become more sophisticated about triggering the nervous system's defense mechanisms and causing "excitement." We are teaching people in our society to feel beset by cavemen at all times. This will be a generation of Americans who crave constant drama constant strife-- "stress" will be the very way it "feels to be human" for us, and we will go out of our way to create violence and stress in our lives. In essence we are creating in our culture a dependancy on our own body drugs, and addiction to violence and drama.

Will we become an even more violent culture? A culture of ultra consumers who require constant vital stimulation and "entertaining?"

Who will be there to provide the example of a calm mind and a caring soul?

Mr. Rogers we still need you....