Who Loved You Into Being?

Fifteen years ago, after receiving a Life Achievement Award at the Daytime Emmys, the late Fred (Mr.) Rogers gave a memorable and touching acceptance speech. Shots of the audience of actors, actresses, and other stars and celebrities showed many of them in tears, moved by the tenderness and genuineness of Mr. Rogers’ words.
 
We invite you to take three minutes to watch this clip of his speech.

So today, after viewing his speech, we ask you the same question that Mr. Rogers asked his audience that night –

Who loved you into being?

The truth is we all need and have received love that has shaped and molded us into the people we are today. None of us have gotten to where we are alone. It is so important to recognize those people on a regular basis. Because those people’s lives have made a difference as they supported us, affirmed us, forgave us, nurtured us, adopted us, mentored us and accepted and valued us just as we are – with all our flaws, faults, failings and all.

On February 2, 2013, our friend, author Tim Madigan, will be with us in Hershey, Pennsylvania, to speak and share about his relationship with Fred Rogers. He and Mr. Rogers developed a very close and deep friendship over the last seven years of Mr. Rogers’ life. In profound ways, Mr. Rogers helped to nurture a hurting and vulnerable Tim Madigan into being and Tim has written movingly and powerfully about that nurturing in his book I’m Proud of You: My Friendship with Mr. Rogers. We hope that you will also take some time to read Tim’s blog. We will be writing more from time to time about his message, one that resonates very deeply with ours.