"Won't You Be My Neighbor?"

“Anythingthat is human is mentionable and anything mentionable can be more manageable.When we talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting,and less scary. The people we trust with that important talk can help us knowwe are not alone.” - Fred Rogers

I love this quote from Mr. Rogers; it is the epitome of what I believe as a therapist and strive to achieve with my clients. We are all human and we have immense capacity for handling emotions, but sometimes those emotions feel completely and utterly overwhelming. Having a person that we can trust can make those emotions feel more manageable and we might, just maybe, even be able to talk about them more openly.

 We all want to feel like we matter and thatsomeone cares about us; that is a universal human desire. No one wants to feellike they are all alone in this life, but often that is a feeling that weexperience. How do we combat those feelings of being alone, isolated, notheard, or not cared for? Connection. Connection to someone or something thatallows us to feel seen, heard, and understood. Connection requires vulnerabilityand vulnerability can be scary. Let’s be honest, we have all probably experienceda situation that we chose to bury, ignore, or deny an emotion rather than riskbeing hurt by being vulnerable and sharing.

Many of us grew up with Mr. Rogers as our introduction into learning about feelings. He didn’t shy away from talking about the hard topics either: death, divorce, pain, rage, and anger all featured on his show aimed at children. His forthright presentation of issues that we, as human beings, all struggle with was not typical for the time where children were, largely, encouraged to be seen and not heard. How refreshing to help children, and the adults that we became, to learn to recognize, identify, and name the emotions that we were feeling and that it was ok to be scared, it’s human. And if it’s human, then it’s mentionable and manageable with a little help from our friends in the neighborhood. In the words of Mr. Rogers, “Won’t you be my neighbor?”

Henley, Y.,Saraf, P., Turtletaub, M., Holzer, L. (Producers), & Heller, M. (Director).(2019) A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood [Motion Picture]. UnitedStates: Tristar Pictures.