In the seventies, I lived next door to the Tree of Life Synagogue where the Saturday’s heartbreaking shooting took place. Happy in a dormered carriage house behind a beautiful old Pittsburgh mansion, living in the optimistic innocence of the era, there was no imagining the kind of violence that would become commonplace in America almost 5 decades later…

…And would wound the city I still adore and where I have many friends, and which seems to capture the hearts of those that visit it, including actor Tom Hanks who tweeted this photo he took there while working on a film.

I was deeply shaken and griefstuck by the news, and joined with many around the country wondering how to navigate such extraordinary violence.

While hitchhiking to the campus one day so long ago, the then not-so-famous Mister Rogers stopped and gave me a lift. He was as gentle and kind as he was in his show. I would not realize until many years later how wise he really was, committed to nonviolence in even the smallest aspect of life.

His words remain a balm and a reminder, the only option…

…To remember the good, the light, the helpers that are everywhere, still, and connect with them.