syds_shelves 's review for:

The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers by Maxwell King

5.0

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

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When I was a little boy, before I knew I was a little boy, I was a neighbor. Ever the painfully rigid kid, I knew it didn’t matter that I was inside my great great grandmother’s living room. It didn’t matter that she had actual tangible neighbors and my neighbors were the furniture in this space. When Mister Rogers addressed his neighbor, I felt directly spoken to. It was one of the few times I remember not feeling self conscious for doing something that could have been thought of as silly. In this room during this time, it didn’t matter. I also remember it was one of the few times I ever felt myself. I wasn’t someone’s kid or sibling here - I could be just me with no job. I’d never had that and I still feel like I never have had that like I did in front of the tv. 

My network of providers was filled with different folks - grandparents, great great grandparents, parent, aunts. Anyone who could help usually did. There was a lot of movement, a lot of frustrations, and not a lot of money. As an adult, I can sympathize with the frustrations that must have been felt. At the time though, all I knew was that I was a kid nobody really had time for. Anything involving me was something that had to be accounted for. Someone had to pick me up and bring me somewhere for someone else to watch me. Someone had to feed me. Someone had to pay for me. When you’re carted around as a responsibility, it’s hard not to feel that personally. Long way to say - I didn’t feel like anyone was slowing down and talking to me. I didn’t feel like anyone was taking the time to consider me. There certainly wasn’t an abundance of patience, except for here - in the neighborhood. 

This has been the first time since I’ve been young that I’ve revisited such a significant piece of media from my formative years. It cracked me open much more than I thought it would. I chose to listen to the audiobook thinking it would be good background while at work. I didn’t expect it to be narrated by LeVar Burton and I didn’t expect them to open the book with the theme song from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. They also closed the book that way, and I did cry both times. I talked to my therapist about how I had such an uncontrollable reaction to the audio I hadn’t heard in years. It was the first time outside of concerted therapeutic effort that I felt connected to my younger self. 

I could say a million things about this book but I think if you’ve ever had anything touch your heart as a kid, anyone who believed in you, give this a listen. I think the audio gives a little something else special and I think it’ll remind you of who you used to be before things got so adult. If you take the time, it’ll also remind you that you can go back if you slow down and take the time. 

I miss my grandmother, who is no longer with me. I miss Fred Rogers, who is no longer with us. I miss my younger self, who I know is still in there somewhere. This helped me peak at all of that. It felt like holding a shell up to your ear and hearing the ocean of the past and having a good cry.