Every time I see the word "sincere" I think of Linus trying to find the most sincere pumpkin patch in which to spend the night, in hopes of being visited by his beloved Great Pumpkin.
What is the Great Pumpkin you are waiting for in your sincere pumpkin patch, the one you believe in even when your crabby older sister says you're crazy, the one for whom you'd wait all night shivering among vines? And when the shadow rising over the horizon turns out to be a stupid beagle ... what then?
7 comments:
That's a very good metaphor--i'm not being 'cute' either--it really changed the way i think about the great punkin patch and what deeper symbolism/allusions Schultz was using, it's almost satirical. then if you the context of the episode--halloween, it becomes even weirder.
I think Snoopy would be HUGELY insulted by your use of the word "stupid" in reference to him. Fortunately, Charlie had the uncharacteristic foresight to disable his Internet access, so I think everything's still cool.
hahaha! I *heart* Peanuts.
I think my great pumpkin would have to be... fate. Kismet. The Hand of the Goddess. I have packed up and moved thousands of miles four times on the fleeting thought that I wasn't living my sincerest life and that's why I wasn't living my fated life. And I, of course, knew that my fated life was so much grander and more MEANINGFUL than this one. So I would determine that the sincerest pumkin patch, where I and my surroundings would be united in sincere longing, would be (insert wherever here) and everytime, just when I would feel the Goddess descending... here would come that damn beagle riding on a doghouse, scarf waving in the wind. I would cry, be disgusted with myself (again) and go back home to Utah.
I hope that I understand now that the Great Pumkin lives mostly within and thus imbues our lives rather than suffuses... but still, there is something magically alluring in the thought of a giant magic pumpkin waiting to descend from ELSEWHERE on the faithful.
Answers to prayer. Sometimes they come in the form of a beagle's silhouette (in terms of Bishop, an armadillo) against the sky. More often it's echoed in Charlie Brown's "I got a rock."
It's so funny that Linus invents both his own theology (the Great Pumpkin, who'll visit the most sincere pumpkin patch) and his own talisman (that security blanket).
last night jack and i lit candles and called on the spirit of the great punkin. nothing happened. guess we'll have to wait til halloween.
The Great Pumpkin only shows up if you really believe he will, you know.
And, of course, if your pumpkin patch is truly sincere.
:)
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