Rare News Desk
Robin Williams was a larger-than-life presence for millions of people, many of who fell in love with his humor as children. Much like the late Mr. Fred Rogers, Williams spent much of his life advocating for issues impacting children, which fell in line with the specific type of wonderment his comedy inspired.
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Both Rogers and Williams were fierce advocates of children, of talking and listening to them, and giving encouragement to speak their minds. Williams own death, reportedly at the end of a major depressive episode, shines a deeper light on the need to teach children, and adults, that is OK to talk about your feelings.
“I give an expression of care every day to each child, to help him realize that he is unique. I end the program by saying ‘You’ve made this day a special day by just you’re being you. There is no person in the world like you, and I like you just the way you are,’” Rogers once said on Capitol Hill.
“I feel that if we in public television can only make it clear, that feelings are mentionable and manageable, we will have done a great service to mental health.”
Throughout his life, Williams made several appearances on Sesame Street, another public television program that has thrived in part because of the work of Fred Rogers, but one appearance stands out above the rest.
In an early 1990’s appearance, Williams, clad with his trademark beard, wearing a brightly colored shirt, joins Elmo to have a conversation about imagination. Elmo asks Williams what he was doing with the stick he was carrying. Williams explains to Elmo that with the stick, he can do anything his mind wants.
He then shows Elmo all the things he can do, from marching in a parade to hitting the game winning home run in the World Series. As long as one had an imagination, they could be anywhere, and do anything their hearts desired.
“The best thing I can do with this stick…is give it you,” Williams tells Elmo, before he walks off the screen, echoing the sentiment of Fred Rogers: we can be anyone who want to be.
