“What is essential to life is invisible to the eye.” Fred Rogers
I caught this random line from the late Fred Rogers during a rebroadcast of the PBS documentary on his amazing life on Sunday, and it struck me as so important as we turn the page and head down the home stretch of this unusual year and this unusual time.
I have tried to think about what we have learned and what to look forward to, not back, as we round out a summer like no other. Amidst the continued issue of people talking at each other more than to each other, the uncertainty and leadership voids in various places big and small, the continued profound loss, I keep coming back to Mr. Rogers and his reminder to all of us to “Find the helpers.” It is perhaps his most famous line, and it came from his mom who reminded him that when things are going wrong, to find the helpers, and they will help get you through it.
We have lots of helpers to find, and hopefully and most importantly we are helpers, and are getting better at being helpers, to those around us. In the business of sports, entertainment and media, we have seen profound help from helpers who have aided people just by getting back to playing a game or running a race safely. No matter what the outcome just being able to watch…or listen…to a sporting event has been a fine distraction in a time when we all desperately needed them, and the innovation we will see that will rise out of this summer I really believe will alter the way we consume, engage and enjoy sports and media forever. Change was slow in coming sometimes, but it was inevitable, so having cleaner and safer venues, enhanced ways to engage and watch events, more empathy and inclusion in the workforce, and yes, maybe even getting people to vote and take up other areas of public service will be just some of the things implemented for the good during this summer like no other.
With regard to the loss…of jobs, of some freedoms, of travel, and sadly, of life…there is the reminder that we continue to learn more from losing than winning, and this year has been a series of L’s that will surpass the 1962 Mets for many. The beautiful recollections that came out of the passing of two baseball icons this week in Tom Seaver and Lou Brock, had a profound sense of healing and bittersweetness for thousands who took to social media to share memories. It still seems like years ago that this year started with a tremendous loss to our industry…the sudden passing of David Stern, followed by the tragic loss of Kobe Bryant well before we knew what was coming since March, but many have continued to learn from those losses and keep moving on. Reflect, pickup pieces dwell for a second but keep moving on.
As part of my summer reading, I am finishing up Erik Larson’s terrific work ‘The Splendid and the Vile,” about Churchill and all that went on during the bombings of England during World War II. The lessons of recovering and resiliency from loss that the British people, and really all people, had during that unprecedented time holds great lessons for us today that all should remember. Loses of hundreds of people every day, randomness of death and injury, profound financial struggles, uncertainty about a future for months, then even years, on end. Sound familiar? Yet the helpers, and the leaders, with faith and grit, found a way through. If they could do it…we can too.
And it is a WE not a ME that will get us through. One of the best parts of being in an industry whose essence starts and ends with people and places more than things are the experiences we have had, and those experiences we have NOT had since March are what we, or at least I, miss the most. Yet as I miss so much of what once was part of a spring and summer, I am so thankful for the friends and the lives we can still connect with and will see and do again in the future, and to all those who continue to engage in ways large, and more importantly, small. I’m lucky enough that people keep finding me to say hi, or to ask a question, and to all those I wanted to say thank you as well.
Now I’m not one to sit here and just say that I hope the future is better than where we have been. Hope is a dangerous thing in uncertain times, if it is not associated with action. What’s not dangerous is continuing to have hope that we are moving forward and believing that with every little step forward we can make a little difference by learning and growing together….by continue to listen, to smile, to learn and to impact those round us. That will help us collect the thoughts and the actions we have seen into a path that will help us move forward and when we do finally look back it will be more on lessons learned than moments lost.
To all those new friends and to those who continue to be there I again say thanks. This recent ride is probably one we haven’t enjoyed as much as ones before, but when it ends, lets make sure we continue to help each other get off and on to the next one. ‘
We are all helpers, just like Mr. Rogers’ mom said.
