10.31.2026 – realizing faith is both

realizing faith is both
ineffable, tangible
beating of one’s heart

This morning’s Chicago Tribune has an opinion piece by Mr. Colin Fleming titled, Linus Van Pelt’s belief in the Great Pumpkin encourages us to be sincere (Click for a PDF of the column).

Mr. Fleming writes about Linus Van Pelt and the Great Pumpkin that:

Most of us know how this goes. Linus spends Halloween night in the pumpkin patch with Sally Brown, who has a crush on him, while the other kids are off at a party and trick-or-treating. The Great Pumpkin doesn’t show, and eventually, a freezing Linus is fetched back home by his sister Lucy and put to bed.

Linus is an exemplar of sincerity who numbers among our wisest figures in popular culture because of his realness. Linus doesn’t perform. He believes and tries to understand, realizing faith is both ineffable and as tangible as the beating of one’s heart.

How often are we our unfettered selves? How often do we say and do things just for a desired outcome?

For Linus, the Great Pumpkin is less about toys and more about being true to one’s self. Halloween is treated as his blind spot, the day each year this Socrates of the gang makes a fool of himself and misses out on treats. Snoopy, Charlie Brown’s jape-loving beagle, goes so far as to prank Linus and Sally in the pumpkin patch by acting as if he’s the Great Pumpkin by rising from the tangle of vines.

And yet, Linus keeps going back, seemingly unconcerned with what others think. This is someone with passions. Interests. Linus would be wholly unaffected by an algorithm.

How many of us now take our cues from what is pushed into our faces and talk about what others talk about? There is peace in Linus’ pumpkin patch, living as a lover of Halloween, for reasons likely different from most people’s. He has stripped himself of performative excess and is only himself.

I rate Linus as hero-like.

Born in 1960, I cannot recall a time when I wasn’t aware of and wanted to watch It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

Watched it over and over again.

Screamed as the networks butchered it to make time for more commericals.

And never ever doubted the sincerity of Linus.

Linus is an exemplar of sincerity who numbers among our wisest figures in popular culture because of his realness.

Linus doesn’t perform.

He believes and tries to understand, realizing faith is both ineffable and as tangible as the beating of one’s heart.

Linus keeps going back, seemingly unconcerned with what others think.

This is someone with passions.

Interests.

Linus would be wholly unaffected by an algorithm.

I rate Linus as hero-like.

Faith doesn’t need to be fully verbalized to be intensely real.

It bridges the gap between the mystical and the physical. You may not be able to fully explain what or why you believe when asked to describe it, but you experience its presence as undeniably and continuously as your own pulse.

It is an essential life force, unseen and undefinable, yet pulsing beneath every moment.

All held together by sincerity.

I am reminded of the Bible story in the Book of Genesis where God tells Abraham he is going to destroy the city of Sodom and Abraham makes a deal to find fifty righteous people in the city and save the city.

Then Abraham asks to change the total to 45, then 40, then 30, then 20, then 10 and then two angels show up to destroy the city so Abraham could not come with 10 good men.

What if we went looking for 50 sincere people in this Country today.

Cynicism.

That’s what you find.

Cynicism from the top down.

But Linus keeps going back, seemingly unconcerned with what others think.

I too, rate Linus as hero-like.