Snoopy and Charlie Brown’s conversation greeted me today in Marilyn Armstrong’s “What’s the Point of It All?” Some mornings I’m like Charlie Brown. Other days I’m like Snoopy.
More often than I’d like, I’m the human being on the left side of the dock — a morose Gloomy Gus. But I’ve most always been blessed by a Snoopy. A Maggie. A Sebastian. And, then, after Maggie and Sebastian died, a Barclay who looks on the bright side of life. How about you?
Charles Schulz was a native Minnesotan. I never met Charles, but his cartoon of Charlie Brown and Snoopy sitting at the end of the dock looking out to the far horizon leads me to suppose two things about him. 1) Charles Schulz had a dog as his philosophical partner. Like me, he had a Maggie, Sebastian, or a Barclay. 2) He spent time in the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness Area (BWCWA), paddling a canoe through a narrow channel between the rocks, or sitting with his dog at the end of a Kawishiwi cabin dock . . . or nestled in a hammock . . . pondering the meaning of it all, and feeling more like Snoopy than a Gloomy Gus.
“Yesterday I was a dog. Today I’m a dog. Tomorrow I’ll probably still be a dog. Sigh! There’s so little hope for advancement.” – Charles Schulz
“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.”
― Marcus Tullius Cicero
— Gordon C. Stewart and Barclay, Chaska, MN, March 14, 2019.
Views from the Edge 
Hi, Gordon. Not ignoring you, just a little foggy from pain Med for oral surgery a couple days ago.
The From line, I’m almost certain, had just your name, first, initial, last. If I can find it, I will try poking it to see if there is more info.
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So sorry to hear about you fog and oral surgery, Carolyn! Be well!
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Snoopy never fails to elicit a smile (and in these troubling times, I am always grateful for a good grin!). Your comments on the boundary waters also brought a smile to my face, as my parents spent many a happy summer camping there. Every year they were flown in by a bush pilot and left for three weeks with a guide (Bill Magee, something of a local legend) to camp and fish. Not my cup of tea, but they *loved* it.
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Barclay and I are grinning back at you, Lori, Donna & Diablo! Great to learn about your parents and BWCAW.
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I love Peanuts even though the overall mood was not optimistic — not really pessimistic either. And most of the really funny moments involve Snoopy.
Total change of topic, and glad you moderate here. Are you sure your email has not been hacked? A few days ago I got, apparently (but probably not) from you, an email with a link and a somewhat generic message, and today I got another link with the message: “just wanted to let you know I finally found it”. The subject line was “Re: for all”. I don’t think this was you. You might want to check it.
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Thank you, Carolyn. I’ll do whatever I need to do to fix that! Which email address did it allege to come from? (Sorry Mrs. Semar! Correction:) “From which email address(s) did the messages come?
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And bless Mrs. Semar. I think she might have been the best teacher I ever had. Can think of only one rival, from college.
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For me in HS, it was Mrs. Semar and Mr. Miller. Bot of their teaching stuck to my bones.
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