Circle of Life
One of the best quotes I heard as a child was, “Stop the world, I want to get off.” This was said by the character known as Lucy van Pelt in the cute animation, Peanuts, starring the loveable Charlie Brown. I think many of us have felt like saying this quote recently, perhaps for different reasons, but it’s most likely how a lot of people feel right now.
When I was a little girl - around six or seven - my dad surprised my brother and me with a pet rabbit. He brought it home in a brown cardboard box and I vividly remember him placing the box in the back garden and telling us to look inside. You can imagine our delight when we saw a stunning black and white rabbit with long floppy ears and silky fur, its big brown eyes trying to make sense of the new surroundings. Dad also ‘magically’ produced a wooden hutch and we spent the rest of the day bedding it with hay and watching our new friend nibble frantically on lettuce leaves and carrots. I got to name our rabbit Snoopy, after Charlie Brown’s dog, as back then, Peanuts was my favourite programme. Dad said Snoopy was a buck. But not long after Snoopy had settled in, we went down to the hutch one morning and discovered that Snoopy was most definitely not a buck as six tiny baby rabbits nestled themselves underneath their mummy’s swollen belly. “Snoopy’s a girl!” I remember shouting, leaving Dad puzzled at why none of us had worked it out previously. Unfortunately, none of us had a clue about rabbits back then apart from the fact they are cute, and I’m glad to say we managed to find good homes for the babies eventually. I can’t remember how long Snoopy lived for after that, but I adored her and spent hours playing with her on the grass.
My dad built a run for her by using four long planks of wood that we positioned around the outskirts of the lawn, and even though those planks meant the end of the world for Snoopy, I will always believe she would never have wanted to get off. She felt safe within those boundaries, secure in the knowledge that she would always be looked after. It’s how we, as human beings, want to feel: secure, safe, and confident that should things ever get so bad that we want to stop the world so we can get off, someone will come along and put their hand gently upon our shoulder and offer us the assurance we need.
I had a Christian upbringing, though I’m not ashamed to admit my faith was somewhat lost many years ago. But I still believe there is good in most of us, that more people on the outside, are on our side, that we can, and we should, stand together. Perhaps Snoopy was naive to think her world ended at the planks of wood and nothing existed beyond them; but we know differently, and that’s something that will always give us cause to carry on striving for that reassurance.
