Linus Was Right!

"Summers Fly, Winters Walk." - Linus to Charlie Brown.

When I was 10, my family gave me these collections of Peanuts' comic strips from the 50s, 60s, and early 70s as birthday and Christmas gifts.  I still have them somewhere upstairs.  Anyway, I remember in one strip, the forever downtrodden Charlie Brown is bemoaning the end of the summer, the beginning of the school year, and the concept of time itself.  Enter Linus with his usual flair for wisdom: "Summers fly, winters walk."

From a kid's perspective, that is both heartbreaking and true.  You spend 9 months of the year slogging through school, potentially bad weather, early bedtimes, less daylight.  You feel every part of those long 9 months.  And then summer comes.  Sweet freedom!  The sun stays out past 8pm.  You stay up late; you sleep late.  You do everything and nothing!  Then you blink and summer is over.  And it's back to the grind.  To the salt mines, as my dad used to say.  That last night of summer had such a feeling of childhood dread and finality about it.  You almost wanted to pull the covers up over your head and pray that when your eyes opened the next morning, it was summer again.  Sigh.

Here's the thing - and this is part of the genius of Charles M. Schulz.  He put these words into the mouths of second graders.  But every Peanuts strip somehow still has relevance as an adult.  It is amazing how we think and process life's lessons.  Schulz tapped into these thought patterns and hit on a formula that would make us laugh, but still make us think.

Tomorrow is Labor Day, the traditional end of summer.  The next day most kids will go back to school, if they haven't already.  And we feel their pain.  But it is no less painful for adults.  Adults who mostly don't get summers off like they did as youngsters.  We too treasure the added sunlight.  There is the promise of vacation.  Visits to our favorite places with friends and family - a trip to the beach, the occasional baseball game, a picnic, a barbecue, etc.  Heck, we'll even stay up late (and regret it the next day).  It's enough to make you feel like a kid again.

And then Labor Day comes.  Soon the days will grow shorter and, for many of us, our thoughts will turn to heating bills and snow shovels and all sorts of things we never worried about as children and don't want to think about now.  The long haul to next summer begins - and it will seem endless.

He may have been completely off base about that whole Great Pumpkin thing, but about this matter Linus was spot on.  Summers Fly, Winters Walk.  Here's hoping your summer, however brief, was full of great memories.  And that your winters are full of great memories as well.  Lord knows, you'll have plenty of time to make them.