Book of the Week: "A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood"

"Currently, I'm in the middle of reading Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's book "Flow"about what makes for optimal experiences and how to achieve flow in your everyday life. I'm reading this book at the same time I'm plugging away at Michelle Obama's "Becoming" so this is one of the reasons you haven't seen many posts. But I can't keep my loyal fans and readers much longer. Today is the perfect day to post a book I've had since the beginning of summer. I recommend you all go pick up a copy - and literally pick it up don't order it as an e-book.

As many of you saw the trailer for Tom Hanks' new movie came out today and it got everyone, and I mean everyone, buzzing. The legendary actor's latest role is Mr. Fred Rogers, yes THE Fred Rogers in the move A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood set to be released in theaters this November. In case you haven't seen the trailer because you live under a rock, I've embedded it for your viewing pleasure below.

First things first, although my first choice of the actor to play Mr. Rogers was former Harvard ath. comm. intern Conner Grant, I will admit Tom Hanks was best for this role. Think about it for a minute, the man who voiced Andy's best friend Sheriff Woody from the wildly popular Toy Story series, is now playing the man all millennials grew up watching. How mind-blowing is that?

Not only was Woody Andy's favorite toy and best friend, Woody exemplified all the qualities of a true best friend. Andy put it best in Toy Story 3 "he's brave like a cowboy should be, kind, and smart, but the thing that makes Woody special is he'll never give up on you ... ever ... he'll be there for you ... no matter what."

Mr. Rogers was our childhood. Even in the trailer the reporter's girlfriend told her boyfriend "don't ruin her childhood." As we all were growing up and our young, impressionable minds were still developing, it was gratifying to be able to watch a great, kind-hearted human on television to help mold us into becoming the best person we could. And there was no limit to Mr. Rogers' love. After the September 11th attacks, he put out a PSA about in times of trouble "look for the helpers." With everything going on in the world today and so many distractions, we need Mr. Rogers now more than ever.

Earlier this summer I was enjoying one my favorite pastimes - walking through the COOP and browsing all the books in hopes one would catch my eye. And one did! It was an illustrated book entitled "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" and contained with illustrations all the songs from his 912 episodes, including the iconic theme song as well as some others that maybe you forgot about. But when you see them it brings back waves of fantastic memories.

I'll share a few of my favorites.

One of them, that I really don't remember being a song, but whatever, is "Be The Best Of Whatever You Are." It is something that I value, continuously push across and is something I'm still trying to work on in myself every day. It's about being the best at whatever you're doing. If your job for the day is to pick up of dog crap, well you might as well be the best dog crap picker-upper in the world! It's about having a sense of pride and ownership in your work.

Another good one is "It's You I Like." I remembered this song instantly because the picture next to the lyrics was an illustrated picture of the time the little boy with muscular dystrophy visited Mr. Rogers and the two of them sang this song together. The meaning behind it is simple, you like the person not the things he / she can do.