What It's All About
If the video in this post looks familiar, there’s good reason: I posted the exact same thing here last December.
However, since this is the season to celebrate traditions, I figure that I could embed the clip once again, in hopes that it might become an official Running and Rambling holiday tradition.
The clip is the centerpiece of A Charlie Brown Christmas, which - for reasons I described last year - stands head and shoulders above the crowd as the most meaningful and entertaining holiday special of all time. It’s the scene where Linus describes what Christmas is all about:
Nearly every time I’ve watched the video in recent years, two thoughts stand out …
First – what are the odds that anything approaching this clip would be made today? It seems almost incomprehensible that a proposal featuring a popular children’s character quoting scripture would be green-lighted by any major network; it would be seen as too polarizing, or controversial, to risk offending people and alienating sponsors. We live in a much more politically sensitive society than existed 40 years ago; generally speaking, that’s probably a good thing – but in the case of this cartoon, I’m not so sure.
Finally … No matter how many years may eventually pass me by, or how mature I might someday become - I don’t think I’ll ever feel the meaning of Christmas any greater than I do during those sixty seconds when I see Linus standing under the quiet spotlight, reciting the Gospel of Luke while holding his security blanket. It’s an important reminder of the meaning of it all - one that’s just as necessary today as it was in 1965.
Here’s hoping that we remember what it’s all about this year. Merry Christmas, everybody.
