“It’s You I Like”

Reflection #2 - Listening and learning to sing along.

For my second reflection on the music of Mister Rogers, I have chosen another of his more familiar songs. “It’s You I Like” is a slow and simple expression of care for another person. As he sings this song, Mister Rogers wants his television neighbor to know that he values them. He doesn’t like them because of how they look, what they have, or what they will accomplish, but simply because of who they are right now. This is especially resonant remembering that Mister Rogers’ intended audience was young children. 

I could spend time and words breaking down each line of “It’s You I Like,” but I think the song speaks for itself pretty well. Instead, I’d like to reflect on how my experience with this song has taught me something about love - both receiving and giving it. 

It's You I Like

It’s you I like,
It’s not the things you wear,
It’s not the way you do your hair,
But it’s you I like.
The way you are right now,
The way down deep inside you.
Not the things that hide you,
Not your toys,
They’re just beside you.

But it’s you I like.
Every part of you.
Your skin, your eyes, your feelings
Whether old or new.
I hope that you’ll remember,
Even when you’re feeling blue.
That it’s you I like,
It’s you yourself
It’s you.
It’s you I like.

“It’s You I Like” is a song that I have appreciated for a while. I know the words by heart, and often I’ll sing it under my breath as a way of regathering my thoughts and feelings. Of course, there was a time when I didn’t know the words and was hearing the song for the first time. Though I don’t remember that moment precisely, I’m sure that the first time I listened to “It’s You I Like,” I simply took it in, letting myself be surprised and moved by the lyrics and melody. As I continued listening to the song, I began to learn it and started to sing along. 

I’m a person who loves to sing, but I imagine that this way of engaging with music is true for most people. We begin by simply listening, and over time we learn and are able to join in. This isn’t true for all types of music or all people, but I think it’s one of the more common ways we interact with music. This way of engaging with songs could be described as going from receiving a song to participating in it. 

This movement from receiving into participating might also helpfully describe how we learn to love other people, and it reminds me of how Jesus talked about love. In the Scriptures, we see Jesus say things like, “love one another, as I have loved you.” This seems to me like an invitation to move from receiving his love to participating in it. 

Jesus said this statement and others like it to his disciples, and the story of their lives with him followed this pattern of moving from receiving into participating. They began their time with Jesus as ordinary men who heard his teaching and responded to his invitation. Over time, as they learned from him, they began to teach, to treat others like he treated them, and to invite others to follow him. 

I think this pattern, going from receiving to participating, is a helpful way to understand what it might mean for us to be a followers of Jesus, to be children of God. We begin by receiving his love, and over time we learn to participate in it. We hear the song of his love sung over us, and we learn to sing along. The apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:1, “be imitators of God as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us.” 

This image of a child learning from the loving example of an adult is an idea Mister Rogers reflected on when giving a baccalaureate address at Middlebury College in 2001. He said to the graduating class, “Anyone who has ever graduated from college, and anyone who has ever been able to sustain a good work, has had at least one person, and often many, who believed in him or her. We just don’t get to be competent human beings without the investment of many others. From the time you were very little, you have had people who have smiled you into smiling, talked you into talking, sung you into singing, loved you into loving.” 

Though Mister Rogers doesn’t mention it here, I think what he said is true to our relationship with God as well as our relationships with one another. Sometimes, perhaps most of the time, we experience this kind of formative love in interactions that don’t make any mention of God. Mister Rogers’ career is a beautiful example of this. Though he was rarely explicit about what he believed to be the ultimate source of love, the care that he showed others bore godly fruit in making people feel loved and empowered to love. 

I think about what the apostle John wrote about love in 1 John 4:12: “No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” All love flows from the love that God has for his creation. This means that, by grace, all of the little acts of care that we receive and give participate in God's great work of revealing and reconciling himself to the world, whether we mention him or not. This also means that the love we have doesn’t start or end with us. The song of God’s love will be sung with or without us, but God invites us to learn to sing along. 

My experience with “It’s You I Like” feels like a little reenactment of this movement that we’ve been considering, moving from receiving into participating. When I first listened to this song, I heard these words sung over me: “It’s you I like… the way you are right now, the way down deep inside you.” As I heard them, I received those words as true about me and was reminded that I am loved and lovable. 

Once I became familiar with the song, I would sing those words and begin to imagine people in my life that they might be true about. By singing along, I began to participate in giving the kind of love that I had received. Through this song, and the witness of Mister Rogers, I was sung into singing, loved into loving. 

As a way to end our reflection, I’d like to invite you to listen to this song twice. The first time, simply listen and receive the words to be true about you. The second time, I invite you to sing along, even if only in your head, and imagine someone in your life that you love. Maybe it’s someone who has loved you into loving or someone that you find it difficult to love (or both). I hope that this exercise, or even the reading of this brief reflection, might help you remember that you are deeply loved and deeply capable of loving. That’s all for now.

Your neighbor, 

Mikey.