Gratitude Practice 2022 Nov 1: You Really Are A Good Man, Charlie Brown!

Last night, our family celebrated Halloween inside the comfort of our warm little house as a nasty swarm of germs made an untimely basecamp in our bodies. Blech. Big plans for the elementary school Halloween costume parade and classroom party and hopes for a night of trick-or-treating with besties were dashed due to the wheezing and sneezing as coughing of what has proven to be an award winning cold. Double blech. Lots of soup and jammies and cuddles on the couch. A hilarious round of inside trick-or-treating in our upstairs hallway followed by a Halloween candy taste test became essential alternatives and prepared us for the seasonal showing of "It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown." Clearly not the night we had planned but sometimes life pulls the football right as you go to kick it. 

Last night, while watching Charlie and Lucy and Sally and the ever hopeful Linus wait for the Great Pumpkin to arrive I watched my kid fall in love with these timeless characters. I've watched these classics every year for as long as I can remember and always around all of the big holidays but I don't think anything really stuck for my kid until now. Perhaps it's an age thing. Perhaps it's a context thing now that she's done some time on the playground all of the elementary school exchanges must make more sense to her now. Perhaps it's her growing understanding of playmates and siblings and teachers and little red headed girls and footballs and security blankets and tiny yet impressive baby pianos. I've been a big fan of these lovable characters for years and last night, as our original holiday plans were scrapped, I fell in love so much more as they magically carried us through. 

Tonight, grateful for Chuck and Charlie, for bossy Lucy and all of her unsolicited advice and for all of the football traps. Grateful for the careful and accurate way childhood siblings relationships and conflicts and friendships are portrayed. Grateful for the simple animation, the iconic hairstyle and clothes and shoes and voices all timelessly and accurately captured inside this collection of colorful little people. Grateful for that pesky lovable somehow cooler and wiser and older than the all of them combined dog, Snoopy. Grateful that now we all know the real sounds that teachers and adults make when talking to children. Grateful for the way simple childhood thought patterns and exchanges are so perfectly communicated in such a timeless and profound way through this cartoon classic. Mostly grateful for the endless hope for the Great Pumpkin…may it live on in each of us.

I remember being inspired and educated by these round headed kiddos and I'm grateful that some things just seem to transcend time and space and link childhood to adulthood…seasonally on the big screen since 1966.