Fred Rogers has been an enduring presence in American homes for
over 30 years with his show,
”
Mister Rogers
‚ Neighborhood.
”
Fred Rogers has been an enduring presence in American homes for over 30 years with his show, “Mister Rogers‚ Neighborhood.”
Until the day he died, he carried a favorite quote with him in his wallet by Mary Lou Kownacki: “There isn’t anyone you couldn’t love once you’ve heard their story.”
There were many times when someone around Mr. Rogers became angry with someone else, and then Fred would say, “But I wonder what was going on in that person’s day.”
There are so many kinds of neighbors. There’s the neighbor who leaves cookies on our doorstep at Christmas, but then there is the neighbor who lives behind us who promised to share in the cost of a new fence, and I believed him. My husband even helped haul wood from the old fencing over to him because he said he could use it. It’s been more than a year now and we have yet to see one penny for his half. It’s not the money that matters; it’s the principle. I trusted him, but now I find that his word means nothing, and he was only fooling us when he said he would share the cost of the fence with us. I would rather he had just said no to our faces – at least it would have been honest.
The neighbors I will most miss are the ones we have enjoyed as our next door neighbors here for five years, long-time Gilroyans Margaret and Al Woods. They are headed to a beautiful three acres in Tennessee and a house that is nearly 4,000 square feet but will only cost them $82,000 total. Al is retired and Margaret already has a job lined up for herself five days a week at the hospital where she will take her skills as a surgery technician.
Her husband was the local “Water Doc” here for many years, but he tells me he has sold his interest in the company and has passed along his nearly 40 years of expertise in water purification to his colleague Roberto of “Affordable Clean Water.”
Last year I opened the front door to find Margaret with a gourmet goodie basket that she gave us for Christmas. The year before it was a miniature tree with lights. When Al was out watering his flowers, he would always wave as I went by and was ready to strike up a conversation anytime, as was Margaret when we’d pass each other coming and going. It’s those little things that count, those moments of friendliness that add up to making you feel good about the neighborhood in which you live. We are going to find it hard to lose these remarkable and generous neighbors; we can only hope the new ones will be just as friendly and nice as Al and Margaret.
After writing about attending classes on Islam, I received more mail than I have ever received on any other topic. Muslim people wrote to say thank you for writing about how the majority of Muslim people are seeking to live in peace.
“You can only imagine the kind of stereotypes I must struggle with on a regular basis because of my religion and the way I dress,” Hadia wrote me. “It was wonderful to read about Muslims in a way that focused on our shared humanity and values as citizens of this planet!”
“Your highlighting of the outreach efforts of the Muslim community was also a very rich welcome,” wrote Helal Omeira.
Karen, a Christian turned Muslim, wrote, “A little outreach and learning goes a long way into understanding how we are all so similar in the world. We all want peace (most of us) and it is the extremists who are found in every faith community who are off the path to peace, who do not represent the rest of us, and are making life a living hell for the rest of us. True Muslims are nothing to be feared!”
Letters of peace and kindness came day after day, opening my eyes to neighbors I didn‚t even know I had. “May Allah bless you,” was the signoff, or “God bless you and May His Peace be with you.”
All I can say is that if these Muslims are any example of the kind of people we have living around us here in Gilroy, then they are the kind of neighbors I am grateful to have.
There are neighbors, and then there are neighbors.
Kat Teraji’s column is published every other Friday in Gilroy Life. You can reach her at ka****@ea*******.net
