In this solo‑host episode of the "Welcome To The Neighborhood" podcast, Rick Lee James introduces the show as a Mister Rogers tribute and welcomes listeners to a community built around kindness and inclusion. He announces that the focus will be on Fred Rogers' children's book Making Friends, reading the preface and selected passages aloud. While the book is aimed at young children, James argues that its lessons about sharing, compromise, empathy, and handling conflict are universally applicable, especially for adults navigating increasingly polarized relationships. He reflects on the current sociopolitical climate, noting how “being right” often outweighs nurturing relationships, and he hopes the reading can help bridge divides. Mid‑episode, James shifts to a somber note, citing the recent milestone of 100,000 COVID‑19 deaths in the United States, likening the loss to a full football stadium, and urging listeners to practice patience, listening, and collective grieving. He thanks his Twitter community (@MrRogersSay) and encourages continued neighborliness. The episode concludes with a call to join a virtual choir—submissions of video performances of an original song are accepted through June 6 via rickleejames.com—followed by production credits (music by Kevin MacLeod) and reminders of his other podcast and social media handles.
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Welcome to The Neighborhood, a Mr. Rogers tribute podcast. I'm your host, Rick Lee James, of rickleejames.com, and I run the Mr. Rogers Quotes Twitter account found @MrRogersSay. As we again walk into this podcast neighborhood, we want you to know that no matter where you are from, you are welcome here. I'm glad to be your neighbor. Every daughter, every son, every every tribe, and every tongue, in the spirit of Fred Rogers and the life of welcome that he lived, welcome to the neighborhood. This week on Welcome to the Neighborhood, I want to focus in on one of the books that Fred Rogers wrote. It's actually a book called Making Friends, and I'm going to start with the introduction because it's a very good introduction. And even though this book is part of his First Experiences line of books that really is for little, little kids. I think there is so much there that adults can pull from it. I really wish that people would give Fred Rogers' words a bit more time in their lives as adults, because what he says, even though he is speaking to children, it's universal. Obviously, we are in a time where friendships seem to be hard to keep and maybe even hard to make. I've never seen such a politically divisive time where we value being right over having right relationships with other people. I think it's very sad. I hope that right now maybe this will be a way to help us come together in some ways. So I'm just gonna read it to you today, and I don't think I'm gonna be doing much more beyond that in this episode. But this is the book Making Friends by Fred Rogers. I'll begin with the preface to his book. One of life's greatest joys is the comfortable give-and-take of a good friendship. It is a wonderful feeling not only to have a good friend, but to know how to be a good friend yourself. Learning about friendship begins at an early age when children graduate from playing side by side to playing with each other. There is so much to learn about sharing toys and sharing loved ones as children begin to share themselves with others. It can be disheartening for a parent to watch a toddler fighting over a toy or jostling for first place in line. Nonetheless, learning to share and learning to compromise are enormous challenges for the young child whose view of the world is still largely self-centered. Our adult patience and realistic expectations can be as helpful to the child as knowing when we ought to step in and mediate a dispute. A good friend of mine once remarked that "character is caught, not taught." I think that is also true of empathy and tolerance and the other things that have to do with being a good friend. They're all caught, not taught. We can provide our children with opportunities for play, play with their peers. We can offer them suggestions for compromise, and we can intervene when necessary, but our greatest gift may be the examples we set in our own friendships. It is from us, I believe, that our children are likely to learn best. Fred Rogers. And now, here's the book. Making Friends by Fred Rogers. When people like each other and like to do things together, they're friends. Can you think of someone who's your friend? That friend might be a boy or a girl your own age, or someone older or younger. You might be friends with someone in your neighborhood or at school. There are times when friends like to do the same things and other times when they don't. It isn't always easy for friends to decide what they want to do when they're together. When you're playing by yourself, you can do things your own way. You have your own toys, and you can have your own ideas about how to play with them. When you're playing with a friend, that friend might want to do things another way. After all, no two people are exactly alike. So nobody does things exactly the same way. When one friend tries hard to do things one way, and another friend tries hard to do things another way, those friends can get angry with each other. But when they can finally decide how they want to play, they can get new ideas from each other. It can be hard to share your toys, and it can be hard to wait your turn, even for friends. When you can share or wait your turn, you can know that you're learning how to be a good friend. When you and your friend are playing together, it is sometimes hard to let someone else play too. When your friend decides to play with someone else for a while, do you ever feel that you aren't friends anymore? Well, To be friends, the same people don't have to play together all the time. And it can be a good feeling to know that you can have more than one friend. Good friends can have lots of happy times together. Times when they go somewhere special. Times when they discover something new. Times when they share a secret. And times when they try to help each other feel better. Good friends can make each other laugh or smile, and sometimes they might even feel like being silly. But good friends can also make each other very angry or sad. Even a good friend could make you feel so bad you wish the whole world would go away, or so mad you might feel like hitting or pushing everybody in sight. When children feel like that, they can tell the people they love about it. Grown-ups can understand because they were little once too, and they've had times when they've been sad or mad. It isn't always easy to talk about those feelings, but often it can help. When you have those sad or mad feelings, the people you love can help you do things that won't hurt you or anyone else. You can even tell the friend who made you angry or sad how you feel. Good friends try to understand each other's feelings. That's what being friends is all about, sharing sad times and happy times and helping each other grow in many different ways. I think that you will find if you read that book or even listen to the book again, there is so much for adults. That is not just a book for children. We need to remember how to be friends to each other, how to learn from each other, how to share each other's burdens. Friends, I know these are difficult days, and I know there may be many more difficult days ahead of us. Just yesterday, At the time of my recording this, as a nation, we passed 100,000 deaths due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And when you think about that, that's one of our larger NFL stadiums or college football stadiums in the country. If you fill that up with people, I know that here in Ohio where I live, at OSU, their stadium seats about, I think it's around 104,000 people. Really, we've lost a stadium full of people in a very short amount of time since January. In 4 short months, Many of our worlds have turned upside down. We've lost people we love. We've entered a stage of, of grieving en masse. It's important that we be friends to each other right now. It's important that we're patient with each other. It's important that we listen to each other. It's important that we find out not how we can serve ourselves, but how we can serve those around us and how we can grieve together. I'm proud of you for being good neighbors to each other. I hope that you will continue to do so in the coming days. Thank you for being a part of the community on Twitter @MrRogersSay. Thank you for being friends to one another. And being a friend means not only just having happy times, but also letting each other know when we're hurt. And to forgive, and to find ways to do things better. I hope this book today was a help to you. Making Friends by Fred Rogers. You can find the book online. I believe I ordered my copy, I can't remember where I ordered it from right now. It might have been Barnes Noble or somewhere like that. But even though it's a book that's been out for many years, They still apparently are in print, so if you're interested to find a copy for yourself, you can do that. I'll even try to put maybe a link on my website if it makes it easier for you at welcomeneighbour.podbean.com. Anyway, just wanted to let you all know I'm thinking of you. I feel the exhaustion. I feel the pain. I feel the tiredness that's there. And the grief that we're all going through together. We're taking a big hit right now, but I want you to know I'm proud of you, and we can get through these things together with patience and love and understanding and kindness. Thanks for being a part of this community. I'll look forward to being with you next time when I have something to share. By the way, just in closing, If any of you like to sing, this doesn't have anything to do with Fred Rogers other than it's trying to spread some kindness. If you want to go to my website at rickleejames.com, we're putting together a virtual choir and we're taking your video submissions of singing to a song that I wrote, and we're taking those until June 6th. So if you want to go to rickleejames.com, on the front page you'll find details about joining the virtual choir and you can sing with us from your home. Well, that's it for now, and thank you for joining me here in the neighborhood. I do thank you for joining me here this week in the neighborhood. Music featured on the podcast today was Nouvelle Noël by Kevin MacLeod. I want to say a special thanks to all of you on the @MrRogersSayGoodbye community on Twitter. You really do brighten my day with your kindness. I'm your host, Rick Lee James. My personal Twitter account is @RickLeeJames. My website is rickleejames.com. My other podcast is Voices in My Head, the Rick Lee James Podcast. And I look forward to being with you again next time. Until we meet again, remember, you make each day a special day. You know how? By just your being you. There's only one person in this whole world like you, and people can like you exactly as you are.
