It was such a day to me, that I noted it in my calendar, and now I have the My Yahoo thing remind me every year. On this day in 2000, we lost both Tom Landry and Charles Schultz.
I'm not from Texas, but I grew up watching Landry on TV coaching the Dallas Cowboys. He had such dignity, poise and composure that you knew just looking at him standing still that here was a great man. He was an expert at his profession, but he was the same person off the field as well. He didn't need tirades of yelling & cursing to get the job done, nor crazy antics to get a point across. In such a tough sport, he stood out as a kind and generous person. A true Christian, he gave to his community and his country without the need to prove anything or to be recognized for it.
What can I say about Charles Schultz? Everybody loves what he has done to celebrate the child in all of us. He took the best of life as he saw it and presented it to us in a way that made life better. He never liked the name Peanuts for his comic strip, it was decided by the editor of the first big paper to carry it. But he accepted what he couldn't control, and made the most of what he could. His way of telling the stories in his mind will never be duplicated. I remember being dropped off at the theater to watch the Charlie Brown movies, and the simple animation was as much an escape for me as modern special effects action thrillers. I think we all looked at some Peanuts character and said "There's a kid just like me".
These two men had a positive impact on me and on a great many other people. They leave a lasting legacy. Their deaths on the same day probably has no deep meaning, but it's double cause for remembering what we lost, and yet what we gained by their having been here.
