By Dean Whittaker
So, what have I learned this month? In seeing the movie, “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” I learned what a unique, compassionate and kind person Fred Rogers (Mister Rogers) was, perhaps best exemplified in how he spoke to children about their feelings, reassuring them that they were loved exactly as they are. His study of child development, his faith and life experience as an only child that discovered music at an early age played a significant role in how he produced, directed, sang and acted in thousands of episodes that impacted millions of children’s lives.
In reading Exactly As you Are – the Life and Faith of Mister Rogers, by Shea Tuttle, I learned about Fred Rogers’s early childhood, specifically that Fred was bullied but later became accepted when he befriended a popular classmate while his classmate was in the hospital recovering from a sports injury. He took his classmate his homework each day. Eventually, they became life-long friends.
This month also taught me the value of a loving spouse, supportive friends, and the kindness of strangers as I worked my way through a business transition. I also learned that with change comes opportunity as I began to explore “Strategic Doing”, executive coaching, and a “Blue Ocean Strategy” for creating new services. To pivot the business requires letting go of the old to make way for the new. Transitions are hard for me, but there are rewards for working through them as my executive coach reminds me.
2020 holds great promise for a new way of being. I look forward to finding new ways to be of service just as Mister Rogers did in his life as he applied his gifts and followed his calling. As was said on old time radio dramas, please stay tuned for further adventures. There is more to come.
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