If you haven't yet seen "It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood," the new biopic about Mr. Rogers, do yourself a favor and go. If for nothing else, do it for the incredibly powerful moment shared between actors Tom Hanks and Matthew Rhys in a little apartment about halfway into the movie.
Hanks, who does a phenomenal job of capturing Mr. Rogers' poise and stillness, is being interviewed by Rhys, an investigative journalist named Lloyd Vogel who writes for Esquire magazine. Vogel is a man known for his serious temperament, and he is trying desperately to crack Mr. Rogers as an interview subject. He comes at Mr. Rogers with question after question: how he deals with the stardom, where he goes to unwind when things build up, who is he when he isn't "Mr. Rogers." And all the while Mr. Rogers is similarly studying Vogel.
The scene shifts as Mr. Rogers opens up his suitcase to reveal King Friday and Daniel Striped Tiger. Channeling the hesitancy of Daniel Tiger, Mr. Rogers subtly makes Vogel the subject of the interview. Mr. Rogers is inviting Lloyd to go back in time a bit, to remember his own childhood, to explore and discover the parts within him that are tentative, broken even. He's inviting Lloyd to get in touch with the parts of himself he's put away emotionally.
Mr. Rogers boldly takes a seat next to Lloyd, putting the two men into this intimate, challenging place. It's not easy for Lloyd. He pauses for a moment as he recalls his own stuffed animal, one that his mom gave him many years ago, "Old Rabbit."
"Your mom must have loved you very much to give you such a gift," Mr. Rogers says, and as he does he opened a door for Lloyd to step through, back into his childhood. It's almost too much.
That was Mr. Rogers' particular gift. Through a courage that goes far beyond any of those wild and silly rumours about Fred's days as a Navy Seal, he does what can be so difficult and so necessary. He opens up space for us to feel the holiness and vulnerability within each of us.
Towards the end of the movie, Fred is with Lloyd and Lloyd's family. Lloyd's dad is dying, a fact written all over the room. But, it's an awkward space. No one really knows what to say or do in this moment, but again it's Mr. Rogers who is the first to go forward. As an awkward silence emerges in the room, Fred simply names it.
"Dying is hard to talk about," he begins. "But its part of what makes us human. And anything human is mentionable. And anything mentionable is manageable."
There's this collective sigh as Lloyd and his family realize that this is just yet another door to walk through, another series of emotions to travel.
There's another way to describe Mr. Rogers' gift.
He opened the door for others to experience and embrace the child within them. In the article the real life Lloyd Vogel wrote about Mr. Rogers, he tells the story of a group of ophthalmalogist who were having difficulties in how to relate to their youngest patients. They wanted to calm the kids facing some pretty difficult surgery, and despite their incredibly proficiency with medical instruments, they had no idea how to navigate the emotions of a small child. Mr. Rogers simply wrote them a short note: "You were a child once, too."
It's a great reminder. It's also the central theme in this movie about Mr. Rogers and Lloyd.
To become attentive again to our own childhood.
To become attentive to the wonder and fear and anger and happiness contained within us.
And thereby becoming attentive to those around us, their own hopes and fears and needs and desires.
As Lloyd makes this journey through Mr. Rogers' help, moments of healing begin to happen, all of which occur because Lloyd is able to remember and embrace the reality that he too was once a child. The movie becomes a description of what it looks like to mature in a healthy way as an adult.
The movie also becomes a wonderful demonstration of a little line that is tucked into Luke's Gospel about the ministry of John the Baptist, one of my favorite lines in this season of Advent.
John the Baptist will go forward with the power of Elijah "to turn the hearts of parents back to their children" (Lk. 1:17).
To turn the hearts of the parents back to their children: What a wonderful description of this season of Advent.
For what else are the stories of Joseph and Mary and the Shepherds about than this turning towards the presence of the child in our midst? Each in their own turn is invited and encouraged by God to encounter and embrace the holiness and fragility of the child. Each is invited even to face their own emotions: Joseph's places of pain and anger even, Mary's uncertainty and fear.
But, as they do so, they experience the same wonder that Lloyd Vogel experiences in this movie. They became more capable of receiving the holy wonder of life, in all of its harsh brokenness and all of its beautiful inter-relatedness. They find holiness by embracing the reality of humanity, which is - after all - precisely what Christmas is all about after all, isn't it. God embracing the fullness of our humanity. God being emotionally vulnerable and present to the reality of our world.
It is a beautiful day in the neighborhood.
~Wes
Comments
Post a Comment