Each fall Charles Schulz leads his readers out into the pumpkin patch with Linus. There he awaits with unbounded confidence the arrival of the Great Pumpkin.
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Yet, no matter how "sincere"
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Linus' patch may be, there is never any real doubt that this wait is simply another moment in a long, hopeless cause. On November 1, he is driven to that weakest refuge of all when the only retort he can muster is: "Wait 'till next How can man live year." Such a warning is hardly likely to upset the "as if" there were amused spectators who are hope, when his greaiest willing to do just that, perachievement will fectly confident that the outevemually be negated come will be exactly the same br deaih? next fall. This annual tribute to sin+ cerity unrequited recalls, at least vaguely, elements of the DANIEL P. O'CONNELL Christian hope for the Parousia. In one form, that hope is simply a proclamation that the Lord will indeed come again accompanied by a willingness to await that coming through repeated disappointments. Waiting and believing are the principal requirements. Christian hope has another version, one which sacrifices nothing of longing or belief hut one which accords human effort a genuine place in shaping and, perhaps, hastening¡ that Parousia. Thus, the work of men becomes an important collabora-
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