TIM MADIGAN: Anything Mentionable — ‘I’m Proud Of You,’ Chapter Two Memory
I came across these photos thanks to my friends at the “Mister Rogers Neighborhood” Archive. They are from Fred’s senior yearbook, 1945-46, Latrobe (Pa.) High School. Fred was the yearbook editor. Even...
View ArticleTIM MADIGAN: Anything Mentionable — A Gentleman In Moscow
I think “A Gentleman in Moscow” has a place among my top 10 novels. Fred Rogers said something to the effect that one of life’s great challenges is to make goodness attractive. The author pulled this...
View ArticleTIM MADIGAN: Anything Mentionable — Composted By Life
My friend, Leslye Rood, was kind enough to pass along a recent essay by Parker J. Palmer, who many know from his seminal book of several years ago, “Courage to Teach.” The essay was written on the eve...
View ArticleTIM MADIGAN: Anything Mentionable — The Eyes of Fred Rogers
This portrait of Fred Rogers hangs at the top of the stairs entering our living room, which means I see it, and make eye contact with Fred, many times each day. Having Fred hanging there changes the...
View ArticleTIM MADIGAN: Anything Mentionable — The Astringent Healing Power Of That Light
Thank you for the warm welcome in my return to the blogosphere a week or two ago. The first blog in more than a year was a bit difficult to put out there because it largely concerned my own dark side,...
View ArticleTIM MADIGAN: Anything Mentionable — The Purple Flower And The Laundromat
Last Saturday around noon, I turned onto a narrow street near my home in Fort Worth, Texas, but had to pull over almost immediately. I had happened onto the beginning of the March for Science that was...
View ArticleTIM MADIGAN: Anything Mentionable — A Coming Comfort To Those Who Grieve
Is there anyone out there who is grieving? Or maybe the better question is this: Is there anyone out there who is not — to some degree, about some loss? That’s why I believe my latest book might be the...
View ArticleTIM MADIGAN: Anything Mentionable — A Sacred Night In An Amazing Place
Few things gave Fred Rogers more pleasure than making connections between people. Somewhere on the other side of the thin veil that separates this life from what comes after it, (Fred’s words) he is...
View ArticleTIM MADIGAN: Anything Mentionable — The Therapist Grieves
As I’ve written here before, I think my collaboration with therapist Patrick O’Malley on his new book is as important as any work I’ve done in a 40-year career. It is our belief and fervent hope that...
View ArticleTIM MADIGAN: Anything Mentionable —The Healing Power Of Music
Leonard Slatkin is one of the world’s most famous conductors, but for the last several weeks, he’s taken on a much different role in the music world, as jury chairman for the Cliburn International...
View ArticleTIM MADIGAN: Anything Mentionable — A Grieving Son Named Scott And An...
By the mid-1980s, my friend and co-author, Patrick O’Malley, had started to suspect that the stages of grief were a harmful fallacy. But as a grieving father himself, and a therapist who worked with...
View ArticleTIM MADIGAN: Anything Mentionable — A Great Heart; A Great and Questioning Mind
One day recently, it occurred to me that I had not seen or spoken with my friend, Dick Lord, in more than a year. I found his number and planned to ring him up for a game of golf or another of our long...
View ArticleTIM MADIGAN: Anything Mentionable — The Right Time For Mister Rogers
Five years ago came the news that my memoir, “I’m Proud of You: My Friendship with Fred Rogers,” was going to be a major motion picture. Two young screenwriters, Noah Harpster and Micah Fitzerman-Blue,...
View ArticleTIM MADIGAN: Anything Mentionable — Three Hours And Thirty-Two Minutes
I was the new kid in September 1970, attending public school for the first time after years of being taught by Catholic nuns. I walked toward the front door on that first day, passing clusters of...
View ArticleTIM MADIGAN: Anything Mentionable — When Are You Too Old To Rock ‘N’ Roll?
I turned 60 in December, a season in life when, for hobbies, a more sensible person might have turned to watercolors or growing orchids. I have turned to Aerosmith, the Rolling Stones, Tom Petty,...
View ArticleTIM MADIGAN: Anything Mentionable — Barbara Bush And The Aspiration To Goodness
My wife and I spent a healing hour watching the news Tuesday night. When was the last time anyone could say that? The topic, of course, was the passing of former First Lady Barbara Bush at age 92. As...
View ArticleTIM MADIGAN: Anything Mentionable — The Simple Secret To Supporting A...
At a speaking engagement of mine a few months back, a woman in the audience said something that I will never forget. She had lost her spouse more than a year before and continued to grieve deeply. But...
View ArticleTIM MADIGAN: Anything Mentionable — Fred Rogers, Richard Rohr And The Truth...
This passage from the great Catholic writer Richard Rohr really struck me when I read it a few days ago: “Anger is good and very necessary to protect the appropriate boundaries of self and others. I...
View ArticleTIM MADIGAN: Anything Mentionable — Psych 101: How To Be (Really) Happy
In the autumn of 1995, on my first visit to the office of Fred Rogers in Pittsburgh, I noticed three Emmy Awards stacked in the clutter atop a filing cabinet, like neglected bookends. No trophy case...
View ArticleTIM MADIGAN: Anything Mentionable — ‘Go Placidly Amid The Noise And Haste …’
Up early on Sunday morning, in time to hear a gentle rain begin to fall, a brief reprieve from the coming heat of a Texas summer. As I sat listening, this phrase popped into my head. “Go placidly amid...
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