You're a blockhead, Charlie Brown.

I was in bed reading to my daughter last night when my husband called up saying that A Charlie Brown Christmas was on and would it be alright to let her miss her bedtime to watch it. I said OK and we went down to all watch it. It's probably the only Christmas special I'd let her miss bedtime to watch just because it very directly presents what Christmas is really about. My husband says it was his favorite Christmas special when he was a kid. Personally, I liked all the Rankin-Bass stop-action shows. Charlie Brown was OK, but I'd get bored when Linus did his little schpeal about the meaning of Christmas, mainly because I didn't really understand what he was talking about. So while we're all sitting there watching it, I wondered what sort of perceptions my daughter would have about it. My husband asked afterward what the show had been about and she said that it was saying Christmas was about Jesus' birthday. Now, it's been a long time since I've actually seen the Charlie Brown Christmas show and I have to say it's amazing watching it as an adult because you don't realize how much of it is over your head when you're a kid. All the psychiatric help stuff that Lucy was offering Charlie Brown was something I NEVER got as a kid. But, of course, how could I? It also made me realize how low our expectations have dropped over the years, as far as what we try to tell our children. Obviously, the people making the Charlie Brown Christmas show didn't think there was anything odd about writing the things they wrote. They expected children to get it. Today, we've dumbed down everything and we wonder why Johnny can't read. I'm not trying to get on my high-horse or anything (but of course I will) but we really just don't get anything anymore. I'm sure most kids watching that show today don't really get how harsh a criticism it presents against commercialism and I'm kind of shocked by how relevant the message still is. I'm shocked because we're the generation that lost that message in the first place and created what we've got today.