Wednesday, February 27, 2013

A Tribute to Mister Rogers

Today marks 10 years since "Mister" Fred Rogers passed away. With that in mind, I posted a tribute to him on my other blog, and I just wanted to share that with you.

----------------------------------------From my "I See Blessings" blog----------------------------------------

"It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood
A beautiful day for a neighbor...
Would you be mine?"
For years as a kid, I remember turning on the local PBS affiliate, and there were a few shows I always liked to watch: Reading Rainbow, Sesame Street... and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. My favorite at the time was probably Sesame Street, but I loved all three. Eventually, of course, I grew up and began to feel like I grew out of those shows, and I haven't watched any of them in ages. But looking back, I think I have more happy memories of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood than any of the others.

I remember a few of the educational segments, I remember the trolley ride into the "Neighborhood of Make-Believe", and some of the fun characters there. I remember the sweaters, feeding the fish, and fun songs like "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" and "It's Such a Good Feeling". But most of all, I remember how Mr. Rogers seemed to genuinely care about the children watching his show. He spoke in a way that would be easily understood - in a calm, clear tone. He talked about things that were important to us as kids - about hopes and fears of all kinds. And his messages were always reassuring and uplifting.


"You are special."          
          "You are loved." 
"I like you, and I hope you like you, too!"

Sadly, Mr. Rogers left us 10 years ago today. I have a small book called, "The World according to Mister Rogers", which is a collection of quotes published the year he passed away. I'd like to share just a few of my favorite quotes with you.


Wednesday, February 20, 2013

By Fairest Blood...

Last year, two new movies based on the classic "Snow White" fairytale were released in theaters. The first, Mirror Mirror, came out at about the time I started this blog, and it became the first movie I talked about here. The second, Snow White and the Huntsman, came out a few months later, and while Amber and I saw it at the theater, I didn't write about it here at the time. As we recently watched this second iteration again, though, I was reminded of so much rich symbolism I wanted to share with you.

Snow White and the Huntsman
In Mirror Mirror, Snow White stood as an example for us because of her exemplary behavior, but Snow White and the Huntsman actually takes it one step further, going to great lengths to set her up this time as a type for Christ. In other words, like Superman and a few others I've talked about from time to time, Snow White in this film shows us something about the nature of our Savior. There are also several lessons for us from the examples of Snow White's father, the evil Queen and her brother, the dwarfs and the huntsman.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!