Charlie Brown and the quandary of Christmas
“Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?”
So exclaims a forlorn Charlie Brown in the 1965 animated short, A Charlie Brown Christmas.
Disgusted by his little sister who asks Santa for money (“How about 10s and 20s?”), and dispirited by his dog Snoopy, who garishly lights up his house for prize money, Charlie Brown is depressed, adrift in a sea of aluminum trees, captious playmates, and a highly consumerized Yuletide.
Turning to the mercenary Lucy for help (“Five cents, please”), he receives her cynical pronouncement that Christmas is a “commercial racket” run by “a big eastern syndicate.”
It is only his friend (and his only friend) Linus who can answer Charlie Brown’s plaintive question.
Alone on a stage, with a single spotlight, Linus responds to Charlie Brown by quoting the King James Version of the Gospel of Luke (Chapter 2, verses 8-14), which reads:
“And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
“And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
“And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
“And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
“And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”
Interestingly, Peanuts creator Charles Schulz insisted this biblical passage be included in the animated CBS TV special, despite objections from the production team. Director Bill Melendez apparently told Schulz, “It’s very dangerous for us to start talking about religion now.” Schulz replied, “Bill, if we don’t, who will?”
The scripture reading was retained, the CBS special was the second-most watched show during its debut week in December 1965, and, owing to Charlie Brown’s “natural tree” selection in the story, aluminum Christmas tree sales went into a tailspin.
This December, as U.S. President Donald Trump’s bombastically malignant administration careens toward its paper anniversary, and our collective political lives have been laced with fake (aluminum?) news, alternative facts, and a frenetic holiday commercialism bookended by Black Friday and Boxing Day, many are also asking, along with Charlie Brown: What is Christmas all about?
And where do we find “good news” amidst the freshet of “fake news”? Where do we discern “great joy” amidst savage military and political violence, the despair that plagues those lacking homes or homelands, and the alarming effects of ecological destruction and climate change?
Where can we find a “Linus” in our own lives to point toward “peace on earth” and “good will” for all?
I can think of three “Linuses” I encountered this year who indirectly provide an answer to Charlie Brown’s Christmas quandary.
One is Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish, author of I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor’s Journey. Abuelaish, a Palestinian gynecologist and obstetrician, witnessed the death of three of his daughters and his niece when an Israeli tank lobbed several shells into his Gaza apartment on Jan. 16, 2009. One of the shells landed in a bedroom, where Abuelaish found the bodies of daughters Bessan, Mayar, Aya, and niece Noor tangled and lifeless amid the wreckage.
If anyone had a licence to hate, it would be Abuelaish. Rather than embracing rage and enmity, however, Abuelaish became a passionate spokesperson for international peace, a poignant advocate for reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians.
Now, as an associate professor in global health at the University of Toronto, he speaks of hatred as a “disease.” At a Massey College luncheon lecture this fall, he told of his current research, which explores how people can be “inoculated” against hatred and imbued with “respect, dignity, and equality.”
A second witness to “glad tidings” for me is Anishinabe elder and grandmother Josephine Mandamin. Since 2003, Grandmother Josephine has led the Mother Earth Water Walks around all the Great Lakes, creating awareness about the importance of water (“nibi”) in our lives, and drawing attention to the need to protect nibi for future generations.
Featured in Joanne Robertson’s children’s book, The Water Walker, Grandmother Josephine completed her last walk this summer, passing the torch, and the pail, to a new generation of water walkers whom she has inspired to literally follow in her footsteps.
A third “Linus” for me is fisherman and whale rescuer Joe Howlett, from Campobello Island, N.B.
On July 10, Howlett, co-founder of the Campobello Whale Rescue Team, successfully untangled a right whale from some rope in the Gulf of St. Lawrence when the whale unexpectedly flipped, killing the 59-year-old rescue volunteer.
An experienced fisherman, Howlett had for a decade and half saved numerous whales that become ensnared or trapped in fishing equipment, including many right whales, which are critically endangered.
Dr. Abuelaish, Grandmother Josephine Mandamin, and Joe Howlett are people who, like Linus, have cut through the distortions of our world to illuminate, in simple, powerful ways, a path toward a meaningful “good will.”
They dared to bring the “good news” of love, respect, and peace in an era of fake news and alternative facts. They have walked paths of personal and ecological compassion in direct contrast to many political currents, especially in the U.S., disfigured by the Trump administration’s overt racism, environmental disdain, and legislated structural wealth, granting even greater tax breaks to the hyper-rich in a land pockmarked by alarming poverty.
Maybe Christmas has something to do with finding the Linuses in our own lives, those people who, despite ever-present clouds of indifference and gloom, embody “peace on earth,” and “good will to all.”