I’ve been thinking a lot about Charles Schulz lately, and about how much his strip Peanuts influenced my life.
Partially I’ve been thinking about this because I recently noticed that L. has a perfect “Linus profile,” an observation that has brought me endless hours of amusement since, and partially because I more than occasionally find myself, consciously or otherwise, quoting an old Peanuts strip or mimicking its word patter. A while back a friend of mine mentioned that when her child asked her why isn’t there a “Children’s Day” like there’s a Mother’s Day and a Father’s Day, she had answered, “Every day is Children’s Day.” Through my laughter, I managed to explain that was the exact answer, word for word, Linus once told Lucy she would get if she asked that question to an adult. What makes this even funnier to me is that, to the best of my knowledge, my friend had never seen this particular strip. (Ahem . . . it having been published before she was born, and all.)
To this day I respect Charles Schulz for showing me that warmth and wisdom were not necessarily incompatible with cynicism, and I’m looking forward to someday sharing all that with L. I’m particularly looking forward to the day when L. asks me his first question that I can answer in a “Peanuts manner.” I’m looking forward to the day I can look into his questioning little eyes, take a deep breath, and say:
“Whah whah whah. Whah whah whah!“