The Garden of Your Mind grows ideas
Distilling many great life lessons the video “Mister Rogers Remixed Garden of Your Mind” also captures the essence of the 1970s Mister Roger’s Neighborhood TV show (posted on YouTube by PBS Digital Studios).
In a very fun and personable way, Mister Rogers suggests to his child-like audience, that you can grow ideas in your mind, just by thinking them. And, you can depend on the fact that if you think your ideas in your mind, they will grow. Grounded Relating concurs, as have also many spiritual practices, theories, and esoteric knowledge handed down through the centuries.
Ahead of his time in many ways, in this video Mister Rogers opened the door to, created space and option for, treating people equally, and viewing people as valuable. First he tells us to look out there, in the external world, by saying that everyone you see is different; notice everyone out there. Then he asks if you ever thought about the things you do, in the here of your own self, directing the viewer to the internal world.
A great spiritual practice: curiosity
These are great, basic spiritual practices: inner world of the self and the external world of out there and environment. In meditation we are taught about these inner and outer worlds. Existing simultaneously in both worlds, curiosity can become the bridge through attachment and non-attachment can be experienced. That’s duality and non-duality in a nutshell.
In this video, Mister Rogers takes an angle on the internal and the external spectrum of community, in individuated silos and in the collective group. And he talked about both with equal ease and value. Very informing constructs for little kids—and full grown adults—to get their minds hooked into. Mister Rogers said:
“Imagine every person that you see
Is someone different
From every other person in the world
Some can do things
Some can do others
Did you ever think about the many things you’ve learned to do?”
Personally always a fan of Mister Rogers, his imagination, Mr. Trolley, and all the other little skits of the TV show, this video grounded me right back into a pleasant childhood memory where I remember being met with warmth, dignity and a good bit of curiosity by a 2-D man on an illusory, inanimate television screen. Watch the video for yourself and see if it doesn’t touch a soft, innocent child-like wonder, deep inside yourself?
A genuine embrace of all open-ended potentials
Even the intro of this video is carefully constructed and open-ended: “Hey Neighbor, welcome again to this neighborhood.” It’s not “the” neighborhood, it’s this neighborhood…concrete and yet open ended at the same time, indicating and accepting that there are other equally good neighborhoods to visit. Mister Rogers is just genuinely glad you dropped by in his; he’s happy to see you, and it shows.
Do we, in our daily walk of life, genuinely greet others with excitement, curiosity, and wonder of what the next “neighborhood” of potential might be? I am imagining those of us with a Myers-Briggs (MBTI) preference for Introverting might struggle with that!
And those of us with a Myers-Briggs (MBTI) preference for Extraverting, may not always achieve a grounded, authentic expression of genuinely greeting others. Instead, sometimes those with a Myers-Briggs (MBTI) Extraverting preference might find themselves coming from an automatic pattern of:
“Of course I need to be happy to see these people. I’m not tired, sad, overworked, hungry, thirsty, etc., or whatever, and I don’t need to rest. I can go and go and go. That’s what people expect of me.”
Ring a bell? Let’s see what other lessons are available from this “Mister Rogers Remixed Grow the Garden of Your Mind” video.
The first prop of the “Mister Rogers Remixed Garden of Your Mind” video, a tape recorder, is called out as “unknown,” quickly followed by a suggestion to face the unknown together and push a button. What do we get? More unknown. Not a problem, for Mister Rogers, or those of us who are comfortable using a Myers-Briggs (MBTI) preference for Perceiving. He suggests going with the flow, and just playing the cassette to see what’s on it.That’s a great, simple life lesson. Those of us with a preference for Myers-Briggs (MBTI) Judging, might get shut down by not knowing what something is, or which button to push, right?
Mr. Rogers says: “Be curious, be open, be flexible.”
How many times as an adult have you sat in a workshop for hours and hours with a guru or a master guru telling you essentially the same thing that Mister Rogers told his children viewers? What was Mister Rogers saying? Be curious, be open, be flexible.
“You can grow ideas
In the Garden of Your MindIt’s good to be curious about many things
You can think about things and make believe
All you have to do is think
And they’ll grow.”
The “Mister Rogers Remixed Grow the Garden of Your Mind” video is a wonderful way to shift your perspective from concrete, known factoids, to the world of potential and possibilities, even when you don’t know how you know, or what you should know. As Mister Rogers says, ”It’s good to be curious.” And as the Myers-Briggs (MBTI) suggests, it’s also good to be able to flex equally in all directions on each polar opposite of Thinking-Feeling, Extraversion-Introversion, Sensing-Intuition, or Judging-Perceiving.
Plow the soil of self to grow the Garden of Your Mind
What have you grown in the garden of your mind lately? If it’s been a while, or if curiosity was never really a strong skill set for you, both the Enneagram and the Myers Briggs (MBTI) are great tools for plowing and tilling the soil of yourself, weeding out over used preferences and automatic scripts, while fertilizing new growth and abundant crops for the curious harvester. It’s good to be curious, and Grounded Relating is here to help.
The full lyrics of “Mister Rogers Remixed Garden of Your Mind” are available on Genius.com :
[Intro – spoken]
Hey Neighbor, welcome again to this neighborhood. I’d like to show you something. Do you know what this is? Well, maybe if I push this button. This is a cassette player with a little cassette in here. And there’s nothing written on it so we’ll have to play it to see what’s on it
[Verse 1]
Did you ever imagine things?
Are they scary things?
Did you ever imagine things
Things you’d like to have?
Did you ever see a cat’s eyes in the dark
And wonder what they are?
Did you ever pretend about things like that before?
[Hook]
Did ever grow anything in the Garden of your Mind?
You can grow ideas
In the Garden of your mind
It’s good to be curious about many things
You can think about things and make believe
All you have to do is think
And they’ll grow
[Verse 2]
Imagine every person that you see
Is someone different
From every other person in the world
Some can do things
Some can do others
Did you ever think about the many things you’ve learned to do?
[Hook]
Did ever grow anything in the Garden of your Mind?
You can grow ideas
In the Garden of your mind
It’s good to be curious about many things
You can think about things and make believe
All you have to do is think
And they’ll grow
[Bridge]
Did you feel like going like that? (hand snap)
Let’s give the fish some food
Mr McFeely, I didn’t order any whistles
(music break)
That’s what they call these slide things
Did you feel like going like that? (hand snap)
There are so many things to learn about in this world
And so many people who can help us learn
[Hook]
Did ever grow anything in the Garden of your mind?
You can grow ideas
In the Garden of your mind
It’s good to be curious about many things
You can think about things and make believe
All you have to do is think
You can think about things and make believe
All you have to do is think
And they’ll grow
