A LEGACY ROOTED IN EMPATHY

No story was too small, or too brutal, for director Rob Reiner to examine with kindness. His movies always sought to connect, not divide.

- MARY MCNAMARA

ROB REINER offers guidance on the set of his film "North" in 1994. His work in Hollywood and politics affected millions around the world, personally and culturally.

I think about Rob Reiner almost every time I put on my socks.

I am old enough to remember the famously hilarious (and largely improvised) bit from “All in the Family” in which Reiner’s Mike “Meathead” Stivic and Carroll O’Connor’s Archie Bunker argue about the correct order of donning footwear — both socks first (Archie’s method) or sock/shoe, sock/shoe (Mike's).

The straight-faced back and forth was, and is, a pitch-perfect exhibition of how much time and energy we waste judging, and arguing about, personal differences that are none of anyone’s business and matter not at all.

ON THE TV HIT "All in the Family," Rob Reiner, second from left, played leftie Mike Stivic. Jean Stapleton, left, Carroll O'Conner and Sally Struthers were his co-stars on the 1970s show about a working-class family.

I also think about Reiner whenever my now-adult children and I sit down for a movie night. When all other suggestions fail, at least one of his films — “Stand by Me,” “The Princess Bride,” “A Few Good Men,” “When Harry Met Sally...,” “Misery” — will achieve consensus, in large part, because of that same understanding.

Reiner was, above all, a compassionate filmmaker, willing to excavate all manner of conflict and tension in search of the essential humanity that connects us all.