I have had many careers, ranging from lawyer to candymaker to cocktail waitress to probation officer, and several jobs in between. During one or two of those roles, I was somewhat New Agey. For the most part, I try to minimize the memories of those fluffier days. Around my most staid friends, those memories are primly hidden, the hippie is fully stashed, the fluff is sharply amputated.
But there are some shimmering images that persist. The lighthearted, improvisational freedom that accompanied those hippy-dippy days occasionally calls my name. Especially when I think of Snoopy.
And when I get tired of the dull and constrained way conflict resolution often continues to be practiced, I feel grey and weary, and miss most my bright Snoopiness.
Today I was missing Snoopy more than usual so I looked for something I had written about him. Here's an ode to the wonderful beagle that I wrote many, many, many years ago. Scoff, stare, point, if you want (especially my lawyers pals), but maybe just for a minute do as I suggest below.
Be Like That Beagle
Snoopy delights us as he becomes a pilot, a dancer, a writer, a scout leader, a vulture. You can delight yourself by becoming whatever you want. A trusty and certain way to Loosen Up, Lighten Up (LULU) is to have a Snoopy Day.
We get so stuck in our roles that we may go through life as if in a trance, or a string of trances. There’s the wake-up-ritual trance — make the coffee, get the paper, read it, make breakfast, brush your teeth. Then you shift into the go-to-work trance.
Break out in a major way. Have a Snoopy day. Follow the lead of that imaginative beagle and be anything you choose. Become an artist, or a cowperson, or a poet, or a vulture, or whatever else you want most. Fill with your whole being a role of which you have only dreamed before.
A Ballerina In My Workplace?
You knew how to do this quite well as a child, remember? Think of all the things you became when you were young. Think of the absolute freedom “make believe” gave you. Snoopy days are “make believe” days and are not just for children. You can be anything we want to be — no matter what that is.
Are we saying that you should go to work acting as a ballerina? If a ballerina is what you choose to be on a Snoopy Day, it would be ideal if you could go to work as one as long as it did not interfere with your
responsibilities, or upset your clients or customers. If you work for yourself, you may be more free to have Snoopy days.
A tax-stressed client may be uncomfortable if his accountant accompanies him to an IRS audit pirouetting all the way. A customer of the phone company may be irritated if the repairman does several plies before climbing the pole.
On the other hand, some clients and customers would appreciate being served by a happy person having a Snoopy Day. Dr. Patch Adams speaks to groups around the country and he asks attendees whether they would rather be hospitalized in a goofy ward or a straight, solemn ward; he says in his book Gesundheit! that over 90% choose the goofy ward!
Maybe Not At Work — Yet
But if your company is not Snoopy-friendly, or your customers and clients are not at the place where they can have their hair cut by a big game hunter, or make their loan application to a mime, or have their teeth cleaned by a pirate, you may have your Snoopy Days on non-work days.
Perhaps you want to start in the privacy of your own home and venture out on errands as you become more practiced in the Snoopy roles you have chosen.
Snoopy Days stretch our imaginations, our creativity, our concepts of self. The stretching makes us looser, both on the Snoopy Days and on non-Snoopy Days. Snoopy Days are frolicking days of freedom, festivity, and fun. They lighten our whole life up.
Daily Plan
Have at least a Snoopy Hour today. What are you going to be? What have you always dreamed of being? Prepare by answering these questions carefully before you assume your Snoopy role. Have lots of fun answering them. Write down your answers.
How do you sound in this role?
What does your voice sound like? Your laughing? Your whispering? Your singing?
Is your voice high and thin? deep and rich?
How fast or slow do you talk?
How loud or soft do you speak?
How do you look in this role? If someone were watching a video of you, what would they see?
What do you wear? How is your hair? How do you move?
What posture do you assume when you sit?
How do you feel in this role? What is your body doing?
What does your spine do when you walk? How do your clothes feel on your skin?
How do your feet feel when you walk? How does your face feel when you talk? laugh? smile?
Answered all the questions? You are ready for your finest Snoopy hour. You sure won’t be the same afterwards. Try to have a Snoopy hour each day this week. Just try it, even though it may seem silly at first. By Friday, you will have a new degree of freedom.
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