“Good Grief!” thatz the well-worn phrase that the oft exasperated and exhausted cartoon character Charlie Brown’s utters in the unsettling throes of a crisis of anxiety and angst.  

The phrase is actually oxymoronic as so much of life itself can be. 

Is it possible for grief to be good? Ah, but herein lies the true genius of  Mr. Charles Schultz, the crafty creator of the syndicated Peanuts series which Charlie and each of the characters, including the anthropomorphic dog Snoopy, appeared in. 

Each character represents some value, level or position on the Autism Disorder Spectrum.

The Peanuts characters are hyperlexic (common among Autistics), and use complex vocabulary usually learning to read before the age of five. 

Charlie Brown represents the rejection sensitivity and social exclusion Autistics often face. He models resilience despite constant setbacks. 

In a few days schools systems across the state and the nation will reopen. Young children to teens will enter the halls of learning to begin the year of academic learning, social growth and interpersonal maturation.

In my own family, two grands will be attending out-of-state colleges, one in North Carolina, the other four hundred miles further in South Carolina.

Most students will be extremely excited. Drippin’ all the way down to the hottest pair of New Balances or Asics tennis will be on kaleidoscopic display.

Ah, but I have a wish, even more so, a prayer, that this year we, the parents, grandparents, guardians, elders and warriors of faith invoke a bias that will radicalize our behaviors and alter our future.

 Our prayer will be that the fertile, fecund fruit of our blood, sweat and tears, our children, ripen and flower into an abundant harvest of grace, good will, communal uplift and unending love.

Here's the linchpin. I’m  asking that everyone of us practice “A Bias Towards Yes” with our scholars (that is what I see in them). 

In her book, The Year of Yes, screenwriter and television  producer,  Shonda Rhimes, tells us that saying “YES” to her children saved her career...and, more importanly, her life. Yes, saying “YES” to her babies saved her life!

In psycholgy, we refer to everyone saying yes as the Acquiescence or Agreement bias. When everyone agrees to something this is called the False Consensus Effect wherein “individuals frequently overestimate how much others share their beliefs, values, and behaviors.”  Whatever!

Sorry, Folks, my bias just leaked out . I say, if we all adopt an attitude of disruption, a disposition of saying “Yes” to our children we can change the future...literally.

Of course, I hear the chorus of naysayers telling me “that thatz the problem with these chirren these days. No discipline, no one ever tells them no, too much personal freedom, not enough accountability.” I know and have heard the argument ad infinitum ad nauseam.

I’ll defend my position more robustly at some other time. But for now, I just want you to grasp hold of the power in saying “Yes!”

To realize the fact that ‘language has the ability to alter our perception.’ One single word can change the future.

Saying yes can be scary. I know this. And as someone who likes to be in control of things, saying yes does not allow you to know what the outcome of that response will be. 

But, today, I say release, Fam, and letz say “Yes” to all the possibilities of goodness, greatness, and grace that saturate our environment if only we were able, or willing, to see it. 

Yes, the work will create the reality but it all begins with the Yes.

So, make a willful, intentional (ir)rational decision that this is going to be The Year of Yes. And good grief, Charlie Brown, look at this, our reality just might, just might truly change for the better.

Rev. Johnny N. Golden, Sr.