Fred Rogers
The discomfiting presence of a saint
A couple friends shared this old compilation video of Fred Rogers appearing on the Charlie Rose interview show, and while my memories of watching Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, while definitely present, are indistinct at best, I couldn’t help but spend 15 minutes listening to it. What struck me this time wasn’t so much Mr. Rogers' lovely insights into life, but in how uncomfortable Charlie Rose looks performing the interview.
First - and I may just be imagining this, but I don’t think so - Rose is challenged by Rogers' deliberate pace. Rose’s normal tempo is likely something a lot faster, but Rogers refuses to be hurried. And through the interview clip you hear Rose start to slow down, never quite reaching Rogers' slow cadence, but certainly influenced by his quiet and calm.
Second, and more profoundly, Rose seems ill at ease, I think, simply because he recognizes in Rogers a spiritual and emotional quality that he wishes he had himself. Quickly behind that is the thought that the absence of those qualities is a real personal shortcoming somehow.
To say it much more simply: this is the discomfiting presence of a saint.
I’m reminded of Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 2:
But thanks be to God, who… uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task?
To those of us who recognize and embrace the presence of Christ in Rogers' life, it is a pleasing aroma - one that makes encourages and challenges us. To those who don’t, it can be deeply troubling. My desire is to live with such an awareness of Christ in my life that I, too, could have a transformative presence like Mr. Rogers did.