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Readers write: ‘Mister Rogers’ thoughts, garden misadventures

Letters to the editor for the Oct. 15, 2018 weekly magazine.

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Gene J. Puskar/AP
Fred Rogers rehearses for the opening of his PBS show 'Mister Rogers' Neighborhood' during a taping in Pittsburgh in 1989.
  • By Monitor readers

‘Mister Rogers’ thoughts

The Sept. 24 Mix column “How Canada influenced ‘Mister Rogers’ ” was such a warm and helpful article! It reminded me that we are never truly happy or satisfied until we are living our genuine, authentic, unique selfhood as a child of God. Fred Rogers certainly did this every day of his life, even when the cameras were not rolling. His sincere living of kindness, caring, and moral values communicated to his young audience ideals that went far beyond words and will last far beyond TV shows. He was true to himself, and his greatest gift was the gentle, caring life he lived and demonstrated every day to children watching. We are all blessed by his example and richer for the experience. May we all take his lead and do the same.

Karen Neff

Mystic, Conn.

Garden misadventures

I laughed all the way through Gail Russell Chaddock’s Aug. 20 & 27 Home Forum essay, “Notes to my garden denizens.” We all need the joy of laughter, and having this to share is so wonderful. In fact, I found this entire issue of the Monitor outstanding. Thanks to each and every person bringing us this news magazine. It’s truly “news” in the highest sense.

Carolyn Hill

Portland, Ore.

The Home Forum essay by Gail Russell Chaddock was hilarious! Voles? Moose? “Snakes in the basement” sounds like a movie title. Thanks for the pleasure of your writing. Excellent tone. Excellent topic. 

Bill Hunt

Toronto

I absolutely loved Gail Russell Chaddock’s Home Forum essay, “Notes to my garden denizens” – everything about it. Living in rural Maine, I sympathize with all the plant and animal issues. Best of all is the humor, and I love your writing. Thanks so much!

Camille MacKusick

Southport, Maine

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

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