Policy & Practice February 2018

from the field By Emily Campbell

Ten Seconds of Being

“All of us have special ones who have loved us into being. Would you just take, along with me, ten seconds to think of the people who have helped you become who you are...those who have cared about you and wanted what was best for you in life. Ten seconds of silence. I'll watch the time.” —Fred Rogers at the September 14, 1997 Emmy Awards in the Pasadena Civic Auditorium 1 F or many of us, our early experi- ences of being included in a community are linked to one man singing and taking off his shoes. Every day, Mr. Rogers gently strolled into our living rooms or basement, making eye contact with us while he hung up his jacket … put on his cardigan … sat on his bench … exchanged his work loafers for a pair of sneakers … inviting us into his neighborhood. Participation was voluntary. Agreement meant entering a safe place where kindness was freely shared and our hardships were recognized through daily rituals centered on learning to understand and respond in healthy ways to our emotional lives. Fifteen years ago this month, America’s neighbor Fred Rogers died in his home of stomach cancer following three decades of being a trusted leader, community advocate, and champion for children and families. The request that he made of his Hollywood and national audience when he was awarded a lifetime achievement award in 1997 by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences was emblematic of his life’s work that centered around empow- ering others to be good community stewards by honoring and reminding us that we were once children, too.

and mind when I was hired to build trusting relationships with adoles- cents placed in a Scottish Secure Unit who were a danger to themselves and others in their community. The angsty anarchist lyrics of Chumbawamba’s Tubthumping “I get knocked down…but I get up again, you are never gonna keep me down” often served as the backdrop to the transformation that took during scheduled family visits. Behind locked doors, communal meals were prepared and consumed, guided by tender and often heated exchanges that reinforced

My own early experiences of being loved and cared for included hugs from my babysitter Lucy Werlein, who had a “tinted blue” beehive hairdo, and the sounds that Stuart’s clogs made as he climbed down the steps onto the well-worn planked floor- boards of my day care center located in a church basement. His steps signaled the transition from Outside Time to Circle Time . Grace, courtesy, and taking turns were modeled alongside stories that detailed the lives of bears, trees, spiders, and flies. Years later, my formal entrance into the workforce engaged both my heart

See 10 Seconds on page 38

Illustration by Chris Campbell

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