A Special Week

Under normal circumstances, seeing a documentary about the mild-mannered host of a children's TV show wouldn't be something I'd consider stimulating Saturday night entertainment. But these last four days have been anything but normal circumstances.

From Wednesday through Friday I helped a longtime friend - the former Deputy Attorney General for the NJ Office Of Bias Crime - to facilitate a workshop called "Race and Rage"; it was the first time the workshop has ever been delivered. We first began preparing for it in the spring of 2017, hoping to have our maiden voyage that summer - the first offer never materialized due to lack of enrollment. This time seventeen participants signed up; all systems go.

Since the workshop concluded late yesterday, many of the emotional moments have been replaying in my head. When my wife suggested we go see "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" tonight, the idea struck me as a good solution for halting the non-stop churn in my brain. Instead, the movie ended up being the perfect complement to the last four days of my life. The emotional wallop the film packs felt of a piece with the work I did this past week. Fred Rogers embodied grace; he was a gentle and loving soul whose legacy will outlive that of every foul-tempered, mean-spirited loudmouth who screams at us and scares children in our increasingly uncivil world. I couldn't have ended this special week any better than spending almost two hours with such a hero.