Much has been written over the years about Charles Schultz and his famous cast of characters. It's widely known that Schultz battled depression and struggled with a very complex personality. Maybe that's what made Peanuts so much more real.
Watching with Ali last night, I was transported back to my childhood again.
Linus is the star of The Great Pumpkin. He holds onto an irrational belief that if he just hangs out in the best pumpkin patch that he can find – if he just believes enough – then the Great Pumpkin will come and reward him with toys and candy. Linus believes , above all else, in sincerity.
"The Great Pumpkin always picks the most sincere pumpkin patch to rise out of. He's just gotta pick this pumpkin patch. He's just gotta! Look around. You can see that there' not a sign of hypocrisy anywhere. Nothing but sincerity reaching out as far as the eye can see."
I guess Linus was always my favorite character. He's kind – especially compared to his sister Lucy. He always carried a security blanket* – so did I. He sucked his thumb years past age appropriate behavior – so did I. He was way too serious for his age – so was I. Linus acts as the ensemble's philosopher and theologian. In A Charlie Brown Christmas Linus quotes a huge passage from the Gospel of Luke. Guess I kind of grew up to do that too.
As we were watching last it made me feel kind of nostalgic and a bit sad. Halloween isn't what it used to be. My mom used to help us create our own costumes out of paper bags, her old make- up and whatever else was around the house. We were Indian Princesses, hobos and scarecrows. It was innocent and fun. Sometimes we were even witches.
In the last 20 or so years fundamentalist Christianity has hijacked Halloween. They have turned it into "Harvest Parties" and used it to try to scare people into some sort of salvation experience with Hell Houses and the like. It angers me that adults with hidden agendas will do these kinds of things to pervert something innocent and fun.
Guess I'll just stick with Peanuts on this – and many other things.
Guess I'll just stick with Peanuts on this – and many other things.
Charlie Brown: Oh brother. When are you going to stop believing in something that isn't true?
Linus: When YOU stop believing in that fat guy in a red suit and the white beard who goes, "Ho, ho, ho!"
Charlie Brown: Obviously, we are separated by denominational differences.
* trivia – it was Charles Schultz, through Peanuts and Linus that coined the term "security blanket."
1 comment:
i too had the joy of watching the show with the kids. i said "this is the same cartoon i watched when i was a kid". now i am just a bigger kid, i guess.
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