On the flight back from Buenos Aires to New York, I was pleasantly surprised to find that there were Bluey episodes available to watch. Five episodes were available, and given they were only about seven minutes long each, I watched all of them. Funnily enough, even though we have been reading Bluey books and listening to the theme song on repeat for Kaia, I’d actually never watched a single episode prior to this flight. Based on the books, I already thought the premise of Bluey was sweet. After having read several books of Bluey to Kaia, I knew I would like the general stories and themes. There’s definitely gentle parenting happening here, where parents are gentle and kind with their children, democratic, but still firm. And at the end of the night, the ending is very real for today: once both Bluey and Bingo are asleep, both Chili and Bandit (the parents) plop themselves on their couches; one gets on his phone, and the other gets on her iPad. Yes, that is what you do when you have a “break” from parenting today, as any parent of young children today can attest to!

After I was done, and after Kaia had fallen asleep, I decided to skim through what else was available for kids to watch. And that was when I stumbled upon The Snoopy Show on Apple TV+. I didn’t know this existed, and since I was feeling a bit nostalgic, I decided to watch one episode, which was called “Happiness is a Dancing Dog.” It was almost half an hour long, so it was quite a commitment for me for a cartoon TV show. Assuming all of this is based on Charles Schulz’s original Peanuts comic strip, I actually learned a few things about Charlie Brown and friends that I didn’t know before: I didn’t realize that Snoopy was chosen by Charlie Brown as the last dog in a litter. Apparently, all the other dogs seemed to have a bolder personality than Snoopy, which was why no dog buyers wanted him. He seemed a bit timid and out of it. Charlie Brown was experiencing a lot of sadness, which is what prompted him to get a dog… which ended up being Snoopy. And with Charlie Brown, Snoopy really lit up. He took charge. He performed many acts of love and service for Charlie Brown to get him out of his rut. And so, it’s no wonder that Charlie Brown and Snoopy loved each other and became inseparable.

As I was watching this, I remembered the big Macy’s Snoopy Ed got me for Christmas in 2006. I actually went into the archives of this blog to discover I wrote about this back in December 2015, nine years after this happened. I had originally asked Ed if he could buy one for my friend, as she had tried to buy one, but they were sold out at her nearest Macy’s. At the time, Ed worked at Macy’s in Stonestown (it’s still hard to believe that Macy’s no longer exists at Stonestown Galleria in San Francisco!), so he had easy access to whatever stock came in first. He not only helped me get my friend a Snoopy, but he secretly got me the same one for Christmas that year. That was the kind of person Ed always was: generous, always eager to please. He always insisted that I stop denying myself “things” that I wanted and just get them. Why not? he said, if it makes you happy?

I think about Ed a lot whenever I see Peanuts or anything Snoopy related. I suppose it’s because, similar to Peanuts, I think Ed was often misunderstood. A lot of people look at the surface level of Peanuts and they think it’s just some kiddie cartoon strip with no meaning or purpose. But that could not be farther from the case. If it really were just that, there is no way that Peanuts could possibly be as timeless as it is and as loved today as it was back in the 1950s. Peanuts comic strips had a lot of very complex ideas conveyed in just a few words that were quite philosophical and psychological. It addressed important and deep concepts like love, death, depression (yes, really), and… what else really is out there in the world? And I think that it had a lot of important messages to its viewers or readers, messages that could easily get overlooked if you didn’t think about it enough; the types of messages that can seem trite, but when delivered effectively and smartly through a comic strip, really do come through — messages like, never stop trying! Know your value and worth! Think about “big” questions and the bigger world and universe around you! Embrace your imagination! Even those who are wise still need security and support (hello, Linus and his security blanket)! And… enjoy the simple things.

After I finished watching this Snoopy episode, I turned off the TV. Who would appreciate knowing about this show? Of course, Ed would. And in my sleepy state, I thought for a second, I’m going to tell Ed about this! And then, once again, I caught myself and remembered… once again, that he isn’t here for me to tell.

So, I’ll just have to write him a letter and tell him in my dreams.

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