You're Relatable, Charlie Brown!


     Happy 2018, everyone! I hope everyone had a restful and relaxing holiday season. I know I did. One fun gift I got this holiday season from my brother was a collection of Peanuts specials from the 1970s. One night during the holidays, "Happy New Year, Charlie Brown!"was on TV, so I watched that with my mom and brother. In this Peanuts holiday special, everyone is looking forward to celebrating the New Year...but Charlie Brown has to read and write a report on War and Peace (Oh good grief!) that's due the day after break.  Having never seen this one before, I have to admit it was pretty funny. Well done, Charles M. Schulz.

     Between watching this Peanuts special (and countless others), one thought prevailed in my mind: Charlie Brown is so darn relatable. A running gag is that he gets the short end of the stick, whether that's getting rocks as Halloween candy, managing a losing baseball team, paying a nickel to get advice from Lucy, having a dog that's "cooler" than he is, getting a D- on War and Peace book report assigned over a break (seriously, what grade school teacher assigns that?) or never being able to kick that football before Lucy pulls it away.  In that sense, he truly is a lovable loser. In spite of it all, Charlie Brown still manages to have a positive outlook of the world. While he's resigned himself to losing, he's still at optimist at heart and hopes for the best in others. And no matter how many times he does fall short, he doesn't lose that belief that he will one day kick that football, win a baseball game, or win the affection of the little red-haired girl.

     I don't know what it is, but there's something about losing that makes it a more powerful and relatable feeling than winning. If Charlie Brown always won, he wouldn't be as fascinating of a character and his overall outlook on himself and life wouldn't be the same. His positive outlook on life could be attributed to him always winning. To have a positive outlook on life in the face of always losing, that's something else. It's also how kids are. When you're a kid, you may be bummed about losing that soccer game or tripping in the hallway, but an overall sense of optimism still persists. Life may be tough in that moment, but it will get better. You get knocked down, but you get back up.

     Personally, I can identify with Charlie Brown. Although I never got a rock trick-or-treating or had someone pull a football away from me right before I kicked it, I can relate to those feelings. Just about everyone can relate to a time when they lost, when they weren't good enough, or when a "Lucy" pulled that "football" away at the last second. When you're a kid, stuff sticks with you, too. For Charlie Brown though, he still goes out and swings for the fences. And through it all, he stays true to himself and never loses sight of that. We could all learn a thing or two from him.

     On brief occasions, Charlie Brown does win. In the special "It's Magic, Charlie Brown", he kicks the football while he's invisible. There were a series of comic strips where teams had to forfeit for various reasons, giving Charlie Brown and his team a 2-game winning streak which, as a Baylor football fan, sounds pretty exciting right about now (Trust the Process!).  While things inevitably go back the the status quo, he still does have a lot going for him: great friends, a pretty awesome dog, and an eternal optimism for the world and others, just not himself. If he can kick that football or win that game, then just maybe, so can we. You're relatable, Charlie Brown!

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