2nd Annual Banquet - March 7th, 2014

As we make final preparations for our 2nd annual banquet, March 7th, we pause to remember that one year ago our friend and author Tim Madigan came to speak about his friendship with Fred Rogers.  It is friendships like theirs that we are trying to cultivate, every day, through Someone To Tell It To…

Tim Madigan, on the birth of his friendship with Fred Rogers (Mr Rogers);

It was in that next moment, I’ve always believed, that our friendship was born. I had become mesmerized as I sat in his office, listening to him as he remembered his friend, listening as Fred shared so much of his own insides. My mind also raced ahead, anticipating, as journalists too often do, what a wonderful story this would end up making for my newspaper. For despite the intimacy of that moment in his office, I was still a reporter and Fred was still a source. The tape recorder still lay between us, running, as if to provide a necessary barrier, enforcing the journalistic ground rules. But with Fred, there were no ground rules. There were just two people, two human beings, together. He turned away from the window, looked at me, and smiled sadly.

“You’re ministering to me, Tim,” he said. “By listening you minister to me.”

Madigan, Tim (2012-03-07). I’m Proud of You (pp. 19-20). Ubuntu Books, Los Angeles. Kindle Edition.

Photo by Xingye Jiang on Unsplash