From Jean Marie Laskas's profile "The Mister Rogers No One Saw", a Zen moment of emptiness and openness and love:

"So the show is like your church?" I asked Fred.

He thought a moment. He said it was easier to say what it wasn't. It was not a show. He used the word "program," never "show."

"An atmosphere," he said. What he was trying to create with "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" was "an atmosphere that allows people to be comfortable enough to be who they are." He continued: "I really don't want to superimpose anything on anybody. If people are comfortable in that atmosphere, they can grow from there, in their own way.

"A lot of this — all of this — is just tending soil."

He fell silent, as if adding white space around that simple, stark remark.

(cf 2018-09-10 - Thank You, Mr Rogers, Present in Every Moment (2019-11-25), Receiving (2019-12-22), ...) - ^z - 2020-01-01