{"id":2678,"date":"2021-04-04T16:34:01","date_gmt":"2021-04-04T20:34:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mohonkimages.com\/journal\/2021\/04\/what-is-essential\/"},"modified":"2021-04-04T16:34:01","modified_gmt":"2021-04-04T20:34:01","slug":"what-is-essential","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mohonkimages.com\/journal\/2021\/04\/what-is-essential\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Essential"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I just watched the recently released biopic of Fred Rogers, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.focusfeatures.com\/wont-you-be-my-neighbor\/\">\u201cWon\u2019t You Be My Neighbor\u201d <\/a>and was struck by what a unique and visionary performer he was. I never had the pleasure of viewing \u201cMr. Roger\u2019s Neighborhood\u201d in real time &#8211; I was a few years past the ideal age &#8211; and I didn\u2019t quite realize what a seminal figure he was in the advent of children\u2019s television.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a wonderful scene where Fred Rogers is testifying before a taciturn Senator Joe Pastore in an effort to secure $20 million in funding to continue. All the previous testimony has been dry and dogmatic and Senator Pastore has clearly heard enough. When Rogers\u2019 turn comes, he speaks plainly and simply and from the heart. When he is through, there is a moment of silence until Senator Pastore announces: \u201cWell, I guess you just got your $20 million.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Like many artists and performers referred to in this blog, Fred Rogers exemplified the courage to follow his creative muse, despite there being no previously created template for such a show. The movie includes a particularly telling quote of his that neatly sums up his philosophy:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><em>What is essential in life, is invisible to the eye.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&#0160;<\/p>\n<div class=\"tpad-img-center\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mohonkimages.com\/journal\/6a01156f6c1fc1970b02788020e2d1200d-800wi\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"3230\" class=\"asset  asset-image at-xid-6a01156f6c1fc1970b02788020e2d1200d img-responsive\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mohonkimages.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/6a01156f6c1fc1970b02788020e2d1200d-500wi.jpg\" title=\"3230\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>&#0160;<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&#0160;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I just watched the recently released biopic of Fred Rogers, \u201cWon\u2019t You Be My Neighbor\u201d and was struck by what a unique and visionary performer he was. I never had the pleasure of viewing \u201cMr. Roger\u2019s Neighborhood\u201d in real time &#8211; I was a few years past the ideal age &#8211; and I didn\u2019t quite [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mohonkimages.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mohonkimages.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mohonkimages.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mohonkimages.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mohonkimages.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mohonkimages.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2678\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mohonkimages.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mohonkimages.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mohonkimages.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}