"As human beings, our job in life is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us really is, that each of us has something that no one else has- or ever will have- something inside that is unique to all time. It's our job to encourage each other to discover that uniqueness and to provide ways of developing its expression."
The Good Neighbor, The Life and Work of Fred Rogers
by Maxwell King
We started off the year with a really great book, The Good Neighbor, The Life and Work of Fred Rogers by Maxwell King. Attending were Ann, KD, Stephanie, Lilian, Carolyn, Heather, Suzanne and Sandy. The book was enjoyed by everyone who joined us on Zoom and we all felt it was a very positive way to begin our new year, with such an uplifting, encouraging book.
Fred Rogers was a very intelligent, talented person, who cared deeply about other people and had a conviction that children needed to be cared for, taught and understood. He lived grace daily and studied to become an ordained preacher. He applied his learning and understanding of the scriptures in his interaction to others and emulated charity in his life. He looked for and found the best in others.
He established deep friendships and seemed to live what he taught, "I love you just the way you are." Heather said she did quite a bit of research while reading the book to check facts and cross reference stories, and found that everything she checked was accurate. We all appreciated his values and the deep impact that he had on public television and children's programming. This was a great read!
. Some lovely quotes from Fred Rogers
"You can't really love someone else unless you really love yourself first."
"You rarely have time for everything you want in this life, so you need to make choices. And hopefully your choices can come from a deep sense of who you are."
"There are three ways to ultimate success: The first way is to be kind. The second way is to be kind. The third way is to be kind."
"The greatest gift you ever give is your honest self."
"Real strength has to do with helping others."
"Some days, doing 'the best we can' may still fall short of what we would like to be able to do, but life isn't perfect on any front-and doing what we can with what we have is the most we should expect of ourselves or anyone else."
For February we will be reading The Kiss of a Stranger by Sarah Eden and we will meet via Zoom on Thursday, February 25.
