Mr. Rogers and Psalm 90

by Kyle Newcomer

The other night Lindsay and I watched the Tom Hanks biopic about Mr. Rogers, and there was a line in the movie that grabbed my attention. In the story, Fred Rogers goes to visit a dying man and his family. The scene has everyone gathered around the dying man's bed, when someone makes an allusion to his coming death. The room goes awkwardly silent. Mr. Rogers senses the discomfort and says, "You know, death is something many of us are uncomfortable speaking about, but to die is to be human. And anything human is mentionable, and anything mentionable is manageable. Anything mentionable is manageable". (From a bit of Googling, it appears this is not exactly what the real life Mr. Rogers said.)