I met Charlie Brown ...
Dad is sitting in the chair and reads the newspaper and the child's buzzing around, "daddy play together?" "Dad, can I watch TV?", "Dad, tell me a story?"
Two professional killers on an old Mustang red, head to Minneapolis. "We can stop for a moment?" I'm hungry, "" Just a second, come on, this trip is boring and in four hours did not say a word, "" My stomach needs company ... "
"Because, as you know, son Lisa, you know what once came home stoned, but he will not stand up, so that his wife told him straight out, so if you go through this door that we do not come more ', she then that if you do not drink at least a pint for breakfast ... "
" What you really need is the will. The truth is that it is in the brain that you're a loser! "
In each of these conversations (or monologues), the silent background character, even in such diverse situations, he turned to the speaker and, inevitably, securing it with a look tired and very intimidating at the same time, they will tell you: "Please, give me a break." There one and only one answer and one and only one eye, and are precisely the ones I just mentioned. "Gimme a break!"
After two months of snow, the howl of America has risen to the sky, nature, the stars, the Creator and exclaimed "Gimme a break!" . Enough with the snow, we can not anymore. And in the universities has exploded Spring Break, break of ten days, no more rain, sun, temperatures above zero. What seemed like an unbreakable wall, in "two days two" has disappeared, even before the snow, I'd say the same snow has melted quietly and civilly in the morning, so, for own will. "Wake up: hybernation is over!" Exclaims Verne the turtle, his friends who wake up from hibernation, squirrels, opossum (Did you know that possums are pretending to be dead if they are in danger?), Porcupines, raccoons, etc.. And insects of all kinds. All away, preferably in Florida or to tease the alligators to their hometown . Or in some volunteer project.
Even at lunchtime, however, though still below freezing, it appeared the first couple to do jogging on campus, with no particular bells and whistles, only to grow back legs and milky arms. The next day, the warm spring sun, between those who played baseball, basketball, football, soccer, lacrosse, ultimate Frisbee, I had a vision. I saw Charlie Brown. Twice. But the second was the right one.
The first is called Charlie Brown Charlie Brown, a name quite common in the States: I know his grandson and it was he who introduced, together with a wry smile and pleading (not the usual beat me, please! "). "This" Charlie Brown, despite his ID, was the exact opposite of the comic book character: a person of success, forty-five and she looks great, very sporty, no identity crisis ... The second Charlie Brown is called in another way, but in its multiplicity, identity (Charlie Brown is in fact a "type") and its perennial identity crisis (he was not so in the early years, when Schulz was just shy, he wrote for a Catholic newspaper and non-Protestant - is a fact - not depressed and was Charlie Brown a small plague), is identical to the "real Charlie Brown", round head, indecisive, sensitive, sleep problems, etc..
Who among us has read all the Peanuts in chronological sequence, you know that the story follows, with some small change (the introduction of some characters, some side story), over the course of normal years, marked by the school, from summer camp, after Christmas and the various sports, baseball (spring-summer), football (fall), hockey (winter). In early March, Charlie Brown was there with his glove, looking for his team. One year, there is so much snow that the pitcher's plate is covered and do not see anything, another rainy periods and the team is adrift on the gloves ... Charlie Brown is always there, waiting for yet another season in which they will attempt to win a game, and trains in the cold. Now, Charlie Brown is out playing (by the way, I think the real sport of Charlie Brown would have been the bowling) with him and we are all just people you know from over ten thousand strips that have accompanied us since childhood.
Somehow, Incidentally, almost every American comics has something typical and peculiar that it goes against logic. In some cases it is more obvious, but apart from the comics with a political background, which except for brilliance and finesse, only Pogo by Walt Kelly, I have to admit that many strips have something wrong or at least does not correspond to reality is seen through a window or walking down the street. At the bottom are not the reality. Take note of the entire production Schulz: It consists of beautiful characters, fixed in time and characteristics (it is a choice that sooner or later, every successful cartoonist must do), but especially mentally blocked. Apart from a small initial evolution Charlie Brown, each of them remains the same for fifty years. But in this there is nothing strange: not for nothing are "characters". What is not normal, is that none of them ever take a real decision, dates from current, critical that everyone does to Charlie Brown of being "without character", applies to all "peanuts." Each one, except perhaps Pig Pen, never takes a real decision is not affected by the environment or his way of being: it can only be a spectator of his own feelings and desires. I'm not saying, of course, they are evil characters: CB he trusts people, after losing again, helps his sister, and so forth, but basically always acts the same way, it's terribly predictable in his emotions. All fifty times without success kicking the ball the football from Lucy, and except one, flew through the air, did not give him an ounce of patience. Just as one who always sees the same film. And the same goes for Lucy, Schroeder, Linus, Sally, Replication, and so on. Their neighborhood is one of emotions, whether successful or frustrated, that is generally the second, referred to them and us with them we are spectators. They are somewhat the antithesis of the American spirit of winning, mixed with a crisis of motivation of psychiatry, the same one that probably has influenced long-Woody Allen, but transferred from the pen of Manhatthan be a genius in Minnesota, where surely there is at home. But there were other times, and perhaps it is no coincidence that in recent years, Charlie Brown fails (pushed, tricked ...) to bring the girl with red hair (do not ever talk about, anyway) and be subject to unexpectedly two loves ( paid), a girl called him Brownie Charles, and he can never tell her his real name, and the other with him fRequest the dance school. I know that this idea may seem sock, but comes from the repeated reading of all the Peanuts , together with that of major biographies and interviews to the author. Think about it, and reflect on the therapeutic role of Lucy, Linus and love for dr. Spock and Miss Othmar (Hagemeyer married) and for a moment forget the sacredness of the main elements of Schulz, perhaps many things will seem possible.
think about it, Calvin & Hobbes also has its own peculiarities. The environment in which it takes place, a suburb , which here is usually a "residential area" of young families of average economic level (a higher level, you find your dream home or villa cheesy, but that is very rich very bad), usually inhabited by families with more than one child, one of the reasons why exactly move from downtown. Calvin Now, with his stuffed tiger who comes to life is an anomaly. It is a only child in a galaxy of large families. His world is totally imaginary, although it certainly is a child friendly. You do the math: a mom, a dad, a tiger, a classmate and a teacher. The rest is imagination. I think there is something which motivates the choice, though certainly the world of imagination, which delegated to the depressed Schulz Snoopy, here is totally boss and the bottom is the substance of a brilliant cartoon that has lived for ten years only. Enough for the brilliant monologue by a ventriloquist.
So Bill Watterson died (artistically) before becoming the heir to Schulz. Given that today occupies the Canadian designer Canadian Lynn Johnston, who has adopted the more traditional sitcom of and works with any environment, the natural appearance and disappearance of the characters, their peculiarities, their strengths and weaknesses, continues For Better or For Worse, deserved for 25 years and, together with a less incisive Blondie and Dagoberto (here the choice is to set the time in the life of a normal family at some point in evolution reached, that is older but still in school, say the model Happy Days, which perhaps more than ideas), showing that the family full and its flaws, but even with its advantages and peculiarities, remains in the hearts of Americans. So there is something more than the stereotype, or maybe Disney Disney has used this vision, perhaps naive, certainly reassuring, yet realistic (in For Better or For Worse may not be the 'happy ending ) that every American aspires. The same that are in line for Leave it Beaver , and later in Happy Days and Cosby Show (I Robinson).
remain two important points: Who was Charlie Brown who I met? My answer is "a kind of cultural sediment" that somehow, with the cooperation of his character, survives in a niche of the third millennium. The second point is this: parents. In Leave it for Beaver, shot in 1957, the mother is the first home appliance era. What still needs to develop in all its forms. The mother of the family, therefore, must take the time to the care of home and family, and the little that remains the dedication (the proceeds from the view) to read publications on the care of the house, perhaps indulging in the early soap operas and then basically wasting time in gossip with friends. It is the angel of the hearth, which candidly admits that at home there must be someone with limited intelligence, but ready to intervene for any case and comfort the children after the father reprimands. Happy Days recovered twenty years later the same period, and Marion Ross (or Cunningham, if you prefer), June Creaver repeats, but ironically, pretending to be a housewife in the Midwest. Few have achieved the ability to Tom Bosley, credible representation in the role of the wise father and credible. After the sitcom Happy Days undergo a sudden earthquake. For what interests me here, Mom has a lot more efficient appliances and must be divided between home and work. His intelligence has grown along with its determination and of his time, who should administer between different activities. It is a time when both parents seem not to know that most fish take (the only sitcom which I think might be saved in this sense is Robinson I) the family no longer appears so solid, the problems are more complex ... parents, as in Peanuts, seems to have withdrawn to meditate, or as Calvin's parents are fearful of the pending questions of the child's wait a sitcom for the third millennium, in which mothers acqustino a more balanced position. But most of all wait with interest the new generation of fathers. Because if the women have traveled a good part of the road that led to those here now call the third feminism (not all yet, many girls seem to give up private initiative, to live in the words of June, in "his cave, waiting for the hunter buy bread for the threads" like it), people often seem to have lost the moral force and compass of their grandparents, which, however, when they are nice guys, have inherited chair, television, newspaper and slippers. But they should / must leave behind Charlie Brown and the prototype of the old worn-out dad and moral (as well as that of the friend-to-all-costs-and-slave-companion. Maybe do a good father, some ways it is more difficult than doing the mother, perhaps because the instructions are less obvious, however, mothers can help us. Despite the proliferation of the literature of self-esteem, socialization, motivation or inspiration, the average American, especially if it comes from a family with problems, but just not looking in the books in the family its references. And the family is below the neighborhood, friendship, religious practice. Not always accurate, not always disinterested, not always safe, but they are there. Think Little Miss Sunshine, a condensed support posts for his life: his father is trying to promote the ten degrees of success, his mother read inspirational literature, Nietzsche and devours his son does not speak, his daughter dreams of being fat Miss America, the grandfather drugs and regrets the past, the uncle attempted suicide after a disappointment in love and gallops on the plains of academic awards. But is the family that puts them together, giving each the role that competes (weird, huh?).
Sadly, almost all the actors and singers are in rehab by something, the few who are saved it is normal because they have a stable family that is worth a lot of books, plans, motivations, etc..
Not all families are so normal, is the other flip of the coin and this
him back after Easter. Many American families are incredibly rough, but in a way that many of you may not even imagine. Before coming to the USA, I wondered: but the Pope is right to say that abortion and divorce are a plague? If they are so widespread and affecting the family, "the vital cell of society", and hit so directly, because it breaks everything down, because we are not for a fall? Further proof that morality if the priests invented to subjugate the ordinary people? It may well be. It may be true. Might be reasonable to be a fundamentalist Christian or secular, as they say here. Saturday, one of the themes of a seminar on bioethics involving theme was the case of a family of deaf people who decided to have children in vitro with the same disease. The case was real. The accident that killed his parents when the two children were small documented, leaving orphans and maybe something else. I do not think that bioethics must move forward by force of circumstances that lead to tears, and I am sorry to use this case: but I do it just to say that besides the general condemnation ( ex post), one of the unexpected and the most renowned bioethicists World commented prior to making these things have to go over my dead body, and I recently bought a gun. In the near future will be the best way to communicate. Unfortunately, going deep into the conversation, I saw that I was serious. For the nation or the tradition (a tradition which, fortunately, I struggle to identify with Christianity, at least a large part of it and with Catholicism, but for a few pathological cases) have to "return to arms." Yes, I think you are ready to eat the flesh of tough cowboy, but only if you pass a test post-holiday.
Meanwhile, I leave with the family that works: they are right outside my window.
Oh, there I said in my house. I seem to live in a kind of Happy Days every time I go back. In summary: the front lawn, lawn behind (backyard). Porch, unfortunately without rocking chair. The mailbox, the classic one, with the number and veil (1127 St. Peter South Bend, for those who use Google Earth). Ground Floor (First Floor here) with living (and inevitable encyclopedia Great American Books, small internal porch, dining room / study and kitchen in quick succession). The kitchen is accessed from the typical side door on the side you go down in the basement . There has been restored and there are also additional rooms for the guests of the passage and a bathroom, but small rooms retain some aspect of a rustic basement with the boiler which frightened Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone: \u200b\u200b the basement often is not heated and is a little 'store, a bit' laundry, a bit '... everything. The access is narrow, the lintel of bias (such as the attic), the scale incredibly steep and dangerous. Maybe, just like in Home Alone , a real battlefield. From the living room looks a bit 'part of the staircase leading upstairs style "Joanie, go upstairs," and upstairs there are two rooms, a studio and I (who share a room with my room to avoid wasting space). Everything like in the movies, wooden furniture, desk, chairs, desk, big closet / wardrobe, two windows still can not understand how to open, but with effective protettura insects, and bathroom. My, I've loved books, gadgets
my various crops in several rounds. The whole house is full of closets, cabinets, appearing where you least expect it. My room is an attic, and a species with a sliding window enters a roof that would be a great idea for a story by Roald Dahl. The house has its own age, but carries his years well. And in fact no different from a house that you saw in a movie or on the fifties. I do not understand why, however, is okay, but an Italian would seem dated, at the same age. It will be an impression. However, the duration of the case, partly because of the weather, is quite limited, which explains why just two months to set up a: not being an expert, it takes a couple of load-bearing walls, however, you put around a kind of pressed plywood, you put the roof sopra.Ritagli space for doors and windows and we put them in, respectively, coating the whole tile (after isolating walls and roof) and strips of wood or plastic, et voila. A group of houses is one block (block : where the bicycles of children must stop), and several blocks make neighborood , which has its own structure, among which the library . But we are talking about particular institution, which requires a separate discussion. Mom throws the baseball and kids, from eight years to three, are in the positions they occupy because of their age. I squeeze my heart when I see my father that acts as a coach (usually the dad gets home at 5 to play with children): Two years ago, just thirty years old, was diagnosed with the malignancy. A month in hospital in Chicago. The two older children, had nightmares the first night, the second was angry with God when reciting the evening prayers, as only a child can do. Every morning, her mother accompanied them to school and then left for Chicago. He returned in the evening to care for children. After a month and a half of intensive treatment, my neighbor who is now also my friend, he was discharged. After some time, the fallout, more strong. Began again the trip to Chicago, the neighbors got a new car with his wife so he could make his three-hour drive safely and not with the van family.
"Dad is very ill but will recover, if it were to risk dying, I'd tell you in time." At this point, this was a sincere statement of the mother to eldest sons. Sometimes you see the soul emerge on the face of a person. In this case it was a small vibration that crossed across the entire face, and even if you saw no wrinkle or frown, the message was: I love my husband, I have five children, I'm tired, the future is uncertain and I really do not know what to do. For a moment, that vibration reported in this area, and then disappeared suddenly. The husband is healed, it seems definitivamvamente, but who knows? "God has not abandoned a single moment." Even now, while launching the ball with the little crying in her arms (which maybe even Joe DiMaggio would have done well). My friend has taken recently to talk because the chemo had affected his vocal cords, I do not know if the eldest son still has nightmares, but the second is teaching me to pray in earnest. In addition to teaching me how to play baseball (never mind the quality, they need a base).
In the house opposite, another neighbor tries to teach his son the swing of golf. There test for months, with the first basket, then with baseball. Unfortunately, the child is a Charlie Brown, but he is happy that his dad to come home to play with him on purpose, but not the father does not give up. said Mr. C. the last episode of Happy Days (256), the one referred to in the picture above (they are the last words, almost all the cast met for the wedding of Joanie, and the series ends with this toast, after the ceremony): "Our two sons are married now and begin to build lives for themselves. I believe that when this moment arrives for two parents, it is time to reflect on what they have done and accomplished. Marion and I have not climbed the Mount Everest or writing the American history. But we had the joy of two wonderful boys grow up, to see them grow up surrounded by their friends and become adults. If the Lord wills we will have the joy of seeing them educate their children and assure you that a man and a woman can not ask for more. Thank you all for having been part of our family: Happy Days! ". Tom Bosley, in addition to being Howard Cunningham, introduced the American version of Life is a wonderful thing. The circle seems to fade ...
other side of the road, playing basketball, is on the block next to a bicycle race. Nearby, two young couples on the swinging swings, while some other kid is playing in the legendary sandpit. Tip: if you want a happy young mother prepared dinner for her family. The girls, my question was always, make their own cakes with mud. And they want the taste. Is it too: I have to go look for someone to challenge in the marbles on the cement in front of the garage ... There was a sale of marbles from WalMart tonight and maybe I can beat the poor Bill ...
Good Night and Good Luck
Marco
"Only 273 days left till winter," is how the turtle Verne asked me to tell you before you leave home.
thanks especially my neighbors, everyone, and many fathers who return home to play with their children. Happy Easter!
