The Comics Are Magic for The Mind and The Heart

When everything seems to be falling apart in the world there is one place I can go a laugh, or simply escape. It's the world of crazy animals, kids, families, and people at work called the comic page.

My husband always has called those pages the educational pages. To him they were always the place to begin in any paper and the place to end as well and he would often read them to all of the kids around the table during homework time as I worked on dinner week nights. I considered myself too much of an intellectual to begin there when I read the paper, but gradually over the years it has also become my own start page as well. Sometimes - well honestly most of the time the news is too much crap and very little that is either interesting or uplifting.

What saddens me is as newspapers die on the printed page and move online, they seem to be losing much that made them a source for the everyday person. The local news and events, and that section that held the best in humor as well as a wonderful observation of our American culture. You can look up those daily comics individually, but it just does not hold the same wonder and awe that occurred when I opened the paper to those who populated the many boxes on the comic page.

I hope we don't lose the comics, because those are the pages that are really the heart of any newspaper. They are gifts of thought as well as laughter, and despite all the important news found in those few paper pages, they're the items that most people look to every day to lighten their mood and share with someone across the daily breakfast or dinner table. This could end up being one of the worst losses imaginable.

Peanuts, Life and Hope

What is your favorite Peanuts character? Linus, Lucy, Pigpen, and Charlie Brown have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. Yup, that makes me really old! This might sound really odd to some of you, but Charlie Brown has always been my very favorite character because of the hope that continues to come from his life. He always tries to kick the football, and to be a friend even though many of those around him don't seem to care.

Life isn't easy, and it's never fair, but you can find that little scrap of hope to continue putting one foot in front of each other. Why has Charlie Brown continued to hold our interest and be so much a part of our lives? He's been a part of how we think - think of the terms that have come from the strip. Security blanket, Pigpen, there are so many little things that were fun, and have given me that okay feeling about myself and that piece of life that surrounds me.

Like Charlie Brown, I was taken advantage of by others in my younger years. And like him I finally got the guts to stand up for myself against people who hurt me. So like him, I also have that little piece of hope that keeps me going.

But I am also a bit like Snoopy. I love his ability to be crazy, and to dream. Kissing Lucy is his payback to a rather mean tempered, controlling little girl who can make life a bit uncomfortable for all of us. His life is filled with friends and laughter. He gets away with a lot, mainly because he's a dog, and no one in that world seem to expect much from him. He's allowed to simply be himself.

I could go on and on because each character seems to have a bit of me, and maybe of all of us in them. What the Peanuts gang has to offer is real life - the pain, frustrations, and that ever present hope and laughter.

Who's your favorite person in Peanuts land...