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    I'm Proud of You: My Friendship with Fred Rogers
    I'm Proud of You: My Friendship with Fred Rogers
    I'm Proud of You: My Friendship with Fred Rogers
    Audiobook5 hours

    I'm Proud of You: My Friendship with Fred Rogers

    Written by Tim Madigan

    Narrated by Sean Runnette

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    It began as another newspaper assignment, a celebrity profile of the children's television icon. But in Fred Rogers, Texas journalist Tim Madigan found more than a fascinating subject. From their first meeting in 1995, at Rogers's invitation, the two became unlikely friends, a deep and abiding relationship that lasted until Rogers's death in 2003.

    In that time, Madigan found Rogers to be much more than the calm and compassionate personality of television. He was a person of unique human greatness who embodied love, compassion and wisdom his every waking moment. He was the transcendent being who guided Madigan through periods of life-threatening depression and the tragic death of a sibling and helped him heal his difficult relationship with his father.

    I'm Proud of You reveals Fred Rogers as a person who deserves a place among history's greatest people. It chronicles male friendship at its finest and most powerful. And it is a book that has already brought hope and inspiration to many thousands of its readers. With this second edition, including a new afterword by the author, the inspiration continues.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateFeb 19, 2019
    ISBN9781977343772
    I'm Proud of You: My Friendship with Fred Rogers
    Author

    Tim Madigan

    TIM MADIGAN is an award-winning journalist and author of several books, including I'm Proud of You: My Friendship with Fred Rogers. He and his wife, Catherine live in Fort Worth, Texas.

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    Reviews for I'm Proud of You

    4/5

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    • 5/5
      Great stories of the heart touching type!! Fred Rodgers is a legend and hero of a different kind. I hope to be more like this man: gentle, kind, thoughtful!!
    • 3/5
      This book is a mixed bag. People who love the book - please remember my experience doesn't need to take away from yours. Not in the least. I'm happy for everyone who gained connection, understanding, and emotional growth in their reading - and I, like you (probably), want to grow in my experience of connection and brotherhood with my fellow human beings.

      I found it to be a worthwhile read, as I'm fascinated by Fred Rogers and his legacy - and I value the push for men to become more open and familiar with their emotional experience of life. The fact that white men are more threatened by self harming behavior between the ages of 45 and 55 than any other danger to their lives bears out the need for more awareness. Guys are depressed, and middle life brings changes that they aren't prepared to handle.

      That said, there are some odd tones throughout the book that I was able to give a pass until around 60% of the way in. The author keeps introducing people he briefly considers the most important people on Earth, only to lead up to details of how he responds to their deaths and critical hardship. It's very strange to me how each of these individuals can be his biggest priorities for fleeting moments of time that coincide with their death and suffering.

      When his brother is diagnosed with terminal cancer, he waits an entire year before visiting him - then harps on the importance of each and every instant of his remaining days. It feels unintentionally vampiric - and I say unintentionally with every hope that you'll hear me loud and clear. I don't think he means to come across this way at all - and I'm certain his responses are more healthy than many (most?) men could bring themselves to write about and experience fully - but it reaches the point of distracting preoccupation for him.

      There seems to be a market motive, however unconscious, for the book in that it admittedly follows in the footsteps of Tuesdays With Morrie and that book's success and audience. It does so in a less spiritual and engaging fashion - - but again, I don't think anyone has overt negative or dishonorable intentions.

      The end acknowledges that the story was scrutinized and directly steered (in an editorial sense) by Fred Roger's business partners and family. A journalist should balk at such a proposition - but perhaps it was the only way to gain approval for publication. I don't know if that compromise resulted in an honest portrayal, though - and at the end of the day that may be a tragic result.

      It's good to know that Fred Rogers had outlets to communicate his abundant suffering. The importance of suffering in some religious traditions is certainly promoted and aggrandized throughout the story. That's an aspect of Christianity that I find heartbreaking in its scope of unintended consequence - which seems to result in reduced efforts to alleviate suffering on a grander scale. Fred himself did untold worlds of good on that front, when it came to ministering to the emotional awareness and self acceptance of children. That's his unsullied legacy. The underpinnings seem to indicate a tortured soul who related strongly to other tortured souls - and if you are looking for answers or examples to alleviate that undercurrent of fearful dependence on supernatural aid, you won't find help here. You'll find people who examine the pain, reframe it to give it meaning beyond the natural world, and seem to hop from pain to pain - supping upon the sharpening of the mind that it can bring. Many people find this to be a good thing, apparently. I feel we can do better.
    • 5/5
      A moving story of someone who actually had a personal relationship with Fred Rogers (unlike all the rest of us who just imagined we did).Madigan shares their friendship as it progresses from an interview to a series of letters and gifts shared between the men.