Sometime ago, the cable network A&E ran an episode of their Biography series dedicated to Fred "Mister" Rogers. It was an interesting program that featured a number of interviews with Rogers, his family, and many of the people who had various opportunities to work with him over his long career. One of those colleagues was LaVar Burton. Many remember Burton from his work as Kunta Kinte in the ABC mini-series Roots, others as Lt. Geordi LaForge from Star Trek: The Next Generation. He is probably most universally known as the host of the PBS program, Reading Rainbow. It was that particular show which brought him into the same circles as Mr. Rogers.
Burton expressed, in his Biography interview, that his first reaction to meeting Fred Rogers was surprise.
He wasn't surprised by a missed place curse word, or an off-color joke. LeVar Burton was surprised by the fact that Fred Rogers and "Mister Rogers" were the same person. He had not expected that the fictionalized character would be such an accurate portrayal of the real man.
The ability to be who one is, all of the time, is truly a gift. Think about it.... how free would you feel if you always were the character people believed you to be? Never having to think up a cover story... never really having to explain yourself... where you were... who you were with...
Sounds liberating, doesn't it?
I would love for others to say that I was that authentic of a person... that they felt everything I did was not driven by ulterior motives, but by a desire to show myself for who I am... for who Christ has made me...
THAT would be one of the highest compliments, I think, I could be paid...
(Of course, all of this reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from Mark Twain:
"If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.")
Burton expressed, in his Biography interview, that his first reaction to meeting Fred Rogers was surprise.
He wasn't surprised by a missed place curse word, or an off-color joke. LeVar Burton was surprised by the fact that Fred Rogers and "Mister Rogers" were the same person. He had not expected that the fictionalized character would be such an accurate portrayal of the real man.
The ability to be who one is, all of the time, is truly a gift. Think about it.... how free would you feel if you always were the character people believed you to be? Never having to think up a cover story... never really having to explain yourself... where you were... who you were with...
Sounds liberating, doesn't it?
I would love for others to say that I was that authentic of a person... that they felt everything I did was not driven by ulterior motives, but by a desire to show myself for who I am... for who Christ has made me...
THAT would be one of the highest compliments, I think, I could be paid...
(Of course, all of this reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from Mark Twain:
"If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.")
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