Rick Lee James shares Fred Rogers' advice to look for helpers during the early COVID-19 pandemic, then offers concrete ways to help: donate to charities, tip restaurant workers, grocery shop for elderly neighbors, volunteer at shelters, and leave encouraging notes. He weaves in Rogers' quotes about honesty and feelings to show how kindness matters in crisis.
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Welcome to The Neighborhood, a Mr. Rogers tribute podcast. I'm your host, Rick Lee James, and I'm so glad that you are here with us today and listening to this very first live episode. This is new territory for me, and in fact, I'm not even sure that I have everything hooked up right the way it's supposed to go, but I wanted to try something today because I'm home today with my son and looks like we're gonna be home for quite a while because of this pandemic that's going on in our country. And I wanted to offer a few words that I thought might be in the spirit of Fred Rogers for today. So as we begin the show today, I just wanna let everyone know who is listening, even though this is a different kind of episode and I don't have the special effects and the intro music or the outro music or anything like that, I'm glad that you're here. And you are welcome here no matter who you are. I always say at the beginning of every show that every daughter, every son, every tribe, and every tongue, you are welcome here. And I'm so glad that you're here with us today. I, if you don't know who I am, am the one who runs the account on Twitter @MrRogersSay, and each day I post different quotes from Fred Rogers on the show. And so the podcast has become an outgrowth of that. We've had so many wonderful people who have joined us here in what I call our Twitter neighborhood. And so many people stop by to listen in to the visits that I have with different guests on this show. Well, there's no guests today. It's just me. And I just had a few words I wanted to share. And hopefully this is coming through loud and clear. So that you can hear it out there on the internet today. I just wanted to share a few thoughts about the time. I know this is a stressful time. It is for me and for my family, and I think it's uncharted waters for most of us. And we're all maybe wondering how we're supposed to act and the best way to act whenever we are in these times. Tensions are high because of this coronavirus, as it's called. And this pandemic, I mean, it has left thousands of people dead around the world, and it's thousands of people sick. I walk into grocery stores and I see empty shelves, and schools have been closing, and of course, officials are urging us to stay in our homes as much as we can. To stay away from the people. Well, we're in this time of crisis and most of us who have ever read or listened to or seen anything about Mr. Rogers, it seems like every time there's a crisis we go back to that quote by Mr. Rogers that tells us to look for the helpers. The message that he shared with children long ago, and his mother was the one that told him, and she told it to him so that in times of great anxiety and great tragedy, that you remember that you can always find people who help. And I think that's true, but I also want to remind everyone that as adults— the message was for children, but as adults We're supposed to be the helpers too. And I know we might feel limited in how much we can do, but I think we're supposed to be helpers. There's still a lot that we can do. We can help those who might really need help in our neighborhoods. We may in fact be one of the people who need help. So when we think of that quote by Fred Rogers, when I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, look for the helpers, you will always find people who are helping. You know, we have the opportunity and the privilege to be those helpers. So we come together being good neighbors in the communities that we are living in. It may be that you'll find some charities that you can donate to. There's certainly a lot of people who are in need. Remember that in this time of pandemic, we are also in a time when places like Tennessee, Nashville area, a lot of people are without homes right now and they're dealing with not only trying to do the right thing for their families in the time of sickness, but some of them, like my friend Eric Peters, who is a songwriter, singer, and artist in Nashville, literally lost their home and don't have a home right now. And there are people like that to think about that you could get to. You might want to do things like Just be kind to the people you're working with if you have to go to work right now. Kindness goes a long way, and being that kind person in the midst of a very fragile situation can really help. In our area, in Brooklyn, Ohio, all the restaurants have closed down. Some of them are keeping drive-through service open, but You might, if you can, and I know some of you might not be able to because you're struggling with money right now, but if you're able to give a little bit extra of a tip, maybe even through the drive-through, you might even think of just leaving an encouraging note for that person. If you have to go to a drive-through to get food for your family or for yourself, maybe you could just take a few minutes in advance to write a little note and say thank you for being there for us right now. There are all kinds of places that I'm sure you can donate to, not just food, but maybe some shelters in your area, maybe local food banks and things like that. And maybe check on your neighbors, especially if you have elderly neighbors and they may not be getting out, and rightfully so, it sounds like. It sounds like they really need to be staying in. Maybe you could go next door and ask, Do you need any groceries or is there anything I can do for you? Just in any way, it might be just small things that you can do. Maybe there's a little yard work they need done or something. But I think we can find some ways to be those helpers in our communities. And if you look online, I think you'll find some really good ideas too for ways to help. Like I said, grocery shopping might be one of the greatest things you could do. And it might be that you could even do it in a way that is easy for you, that maybe you could order the groceries in advance through an app and just when it's ready, drive to the store and have them put it in your car and bring it back. You may not even have to go into the store, but it might do a lot of good for neighbors who are around you. So I just wanted to get on here for a second and just remind you that you can be the helper as well as looking for the helpers. And I think that would do so much to honor the kindness and the legacy of grace that Fred Rogers really passed along to us. And that's why I do this podcast, is I want to try to honor the work that he did. So we'll see in a moment, I guess, as I end this podcast. Thank you for listening. I see some people have been listening live. And I'm very glad to have you here. I think what I wanna do in closing today is maybe share a couple of Fred Rogers quotes that might be helpful in this time. This is a good one, I think, for right now. He says, "I don't believe there's any such thing as meaningless communication between caregiver and child, not from the first touch or coo. Each, no matter how seemingly insignificant, adds to the stored experiences of all messages that have gone before. All this is stored— all this stored experience affects how each new communication is understood. So I think that's a good one, whether we're talking about being a caregiver to a child or caregiver to anyone else. He also says honesty is closely associated with freedom. Another great, great quote for us today. And then he says, this is maybe one of the best ones for us to remember, "I have always called talking about feelings important talk. Knowing that our feelings are natural and normal for all of us can make it easier for us to share them with one another." And it may be that we're going to need to listen more to each other in this time. So let's do our best to be helpers and not only look for helpers, but let's really do our best to be the helpers for others around us in this time. We don't know how long this is going to be happening. We don't know how long we're going to maybe have to be in our homes and away from jobs and away from schools. But when Fred Rogers said to children to look for the helpers, I think he was also saying to us who are adults, go out and be the helpers. So I hope you have found some of these tips on this very brief podcast today something helpful. I certainly wish you all well, and I'm proud of you as I see every day on Twitter so many of you who are doing so many wonderful, very beautiful things for each other. And I want to thank you for that and, and making Twitter a kinder place at Mr. Rogers Safe. So I'm gonna go for now, I guess, and I'm gonna close in the way that Fred Rogers would close each day. And he would say, you know, you make each day a special day. You know how? By just your being you. There's no one else in the world like you, and that's what makes you different and special. And people can like you exactly as you are. I'm Rick Lee James, and thank you for listening to Welcome To the Neighborhood, a Mr. Rogers tribute podcast. This is our very first live episode. I hope you'll join us over on Twitter at the account @MrRogersSay, or you can look up Mr. Rogers Quotes and you'll find us there. You can find my personal Twitter account @RickLeeJames, and my website is rickleejames.com. Well, thank you for listening to this very brief podcast, and I wish you well.
