Charlie Brown Eyes

The Wisdom of Peanuts 

(rather, George Schultz)  

What was it that Schultz saw in Charlie Brown that was the "theme of every person?"  It is that vision that I am after....and it runs throughout the Peanuts' cartoon strips.  Don't we all remember this one?

Lucy: Aren't the clouds beautiful? They look like big balls of cotton. I could just lie here all day and watch them drift by. If you use your imagination, you can see lots of things in the cloud's formations. What do you think you see, Linus?

Linus: Well, those clouds up there look to me look like the map of the British Honduras on the Caribbean. [points up] That cloud up there looks a little like the profile of Thomas Eakins, the famous painter and sculptor. And that group of clouds over there... [points] ...gives me the impression of the Stoning of Stephen. I can see the Apostle Paul standing there to one side.

Lucy: Uh huh. That's very good. What do you see in the clouds, Charlie Brown?

Charlie Brown: Well... I was going to say I saw a duckie and a horsie, but I changed my mind.

Don't laugh!  Don't we often try to see with the vision of Linus...and we don't dare to allow ourselves to see with Charlie Brown eyes?   There is a child in each of us that we never lose, but often ignore at our peril.  I am not talking about immaturity--but simplicity, to see things as they really first appear to us without driving ourselves mad by looking so far beneath of the surface of things. 

Life is like a ten speed bicycle.

Most of us have gears we never use.
                                                             Charles M. Schultz

                                                          Or forget to use!