The notes about people, often born on that day years ago, in the Writer's Almanac can be quite eye-opening. When I was growing up, it seemed to me that the teams from my community and my school often lost their games. That didn't upset me much but I felt that losing was understandable and part of life. I appreciated this quote about and from Charles Schulz, creator of the comic strip Peanuts that appeared in the Almanac a few days ago.
Schulz was unpopular in school, and one of his cartoons was rejected from his high school yearbook. "I was a bland, stupid-looking kid who started off bad and failed everything and hated the whole time," he recalls. He once received a C- in an art class unit on drawing children. He flunked plenty of other classes, he remembers, and "I even flunked dating, which was understandable, because who'd have gone out with me?"
Does that statement ring with masculine pride, confidence and certainty? No. I think it is refreshing in this country to read something that is not braggadocio, not proud and chest-expanding. It does not reek of sweat and victory and standing on the dead body of the enemy. Life and beauty are much more than blind pride and certainty.
There are 50 pages of his books on Amazon. Not to slight The Gospel According to Peanuts by Robert Short, a book illustrating Christian ideas from the Peanuts comic strips.
