By Newsday
People unfamiliar with the Peanuts oeuvre often think it鈥檚 about a funny dog named Snoopy. These people are mistaken. When Charles M Schulz started this gig in 1950, his mind was not on the star beagle, but on his human, Charlie Brown.
Today, the Peanuts merchandise 鈥 everything from toys to kitchen utensils 鈥 remains popular. The text, not so much. These days it鈥檚 difficult to find many people under 40 who really grasp the intellectual and metaphysical underpinnings of the material.
I was raised in a Schulzian household. The comic books and collections were always to hand. The movies were anticipated with wild enthusiasm.
Peanuts should be essential reading for all children, but, I will be the first to own, it may not be the most child-friendly reading.
Or maybe that鈥檚 not true. Maybe, like all good literature, it can be appreciated on numerous levels and reinterpreted as you develop. First it鈥檚 cute, then funny, then it鈥檚 the answer to life鈥檚 conundrums and humdrums.
This is my 200th column. That鈥檚 nearly four years. And, much in the manner of a Peanuts character, I wonder what I鈥檝e done with all your time and Newsday鈥檚 space.
In a 1961 CBC interview, Schulz said there鈥檚 a little bit of Charlie Brown in all of us. He is melancholy. He鈥檚 often lonely. He never really seems to win at life (or love or sports). 鈥淕ood grief,鈥 is what Charlie Brown would say to that.
But I think Schulz missed something: I think there鈥檚 a bit of all the gang in all of us. Or maybe it鈥檚 how I first understood I was many people at the same time.
One of my favourite Charlie Brown panels reads: 鈥淪ometimes I lie awake at night and I ask, 鈥榃hy me?鈥 then a voice answers, 鈥楴othing personal, your name just happened to come up.鈥欌
It鈥檚 the randomness of life that does him in. In theory, every bad thing, every worry or sorrow, could be happening to someone else. For Charlie Brown, if there鈥檚 low-hanging misery to be had, he鈥檒l walk straight into it. Like Lucy always pulling away the football just as he鈥檚 about to kick it. Or being plagued by a kite-eating tree. (That would so happen to me if we had them around the Savannah.)
For all this, he keeps trying with life. And if you鈥檙e a kid who eats lunch alone, that鈥檚 a real triumph.
On the other paw, his pal Snoopy 鈥 and a more confident dog you will not find 鈥 Snoopy is the life of the party. At ease with humans and bunnies and birds. Escaping into his alter ego as a WWII aviation hero. Of all the characters, only Snoopy has this vast and grand imagination.
鈥淏e yourself. No one can say you鈥檙e doing it wrong,鈥 he once said.
No truer words. One of the great lessons from Schulz鈥檚 style is its succinct truths. Snoopy is that rarest of things: a real individual.
Also, beagle identity is very important. He鈥檚 beagle-proud, and I wonder if that鈥檚 why it鈥檚 so easy for him to accept the world as it is. His selfness is never compromised.
Linus Van Pelt, Charlie Brown鈥檚 truest friend, a man for all seasons, is also seldom compromised. But he suffers in other ways: he鈥檚 a thinker.
There are funnier, sweeter and more accessible quotes, but I think this is the most Linusy Linus quote: 鈥淭here are no norms. All people are exceptions to a rule that doesn鈥檛 exist.鈥
Yeah, give that to your five-year-old.
But why not? We need to be more prepared to think, even if thinking only complicates things more. Life is so much tangled string. Sometimes we need a Linus moment when we can pause and think it through.
Next up at bat (there鈥檚 a lot of baseball in Peanuts), Linus鈥檚 cynical, sadistic, sarcastic sister, Lucy Van Pelt. Lucy knew about cancelling people before cancel culture became a thing. She鈥檚 sassy, she鈥檚 mercenary. Lucy 鈥 who better? 鈥 runs the five-cent psychiatric service.
It was 1959 when that set-up first appeared. 1959. This was pop culture for little folk in 1959. And people wonder why I harp so much. Lucy once said, 鈥淚 never made a mistake in my life. I thought I did once, but I was wrong.鈥
I could do this all day, except I can鈥檛. Hey, Sally. Hey, Schroder. Hey, Marcie and Peppermint Patty and Woodstock. You鈥檙e a bunch of weird little guys, but you鈥檙e there for Charlie Brown. And they were all there for me. And isn鈥檛 that plenty?