Rochester resident Matt Knutson is the communications and events director for United Way of Olmsted County.

“We almost missed watching ‘It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,’” I told my wife after accidentally turning on television to watch the presidential debate an hour too soon. Our family doesn’t watch a ton of television because Gracelyn is still so young, so the Halloween classic was not on the forefront of our minds. Of course, the Charlie Brown Halloween and Christmas specials are part of our holiday tradition, so perhaps it was fate that we tuned in just in time this year. Gracelyn was more interested in the buttons on the television instead of this classic TV programming, but I’m sure she’ll grow to love it in future years.

I couldn’t help but reflect on this classic airing at a time so close to our elections. Charles Schulz’s Peanuts’ character Linus said in the special, “There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics and the Great Pumpkin.” As much as Linus may be correct, I’m not going to exactly heed his advice in this column.

I’ve always thought of the Great Pumpkin as Halloween’s Santa Claus. Bringing a bag of toys for people patiently waiting for his arrival in the middle of the night certainly has parallels to the jolly man in the bright red suit. What I hadn’t considered previously was if the Great Pumpkin could be something other than Halloween’s Saint Nick.

Clearly tainted by viewing the Peanuts’ special just before the presidential debate, I found myself relating more and more to Linus this election cycle. How often do we find ourselves sitting out in our “pumpkin patch” just waiting for the perfect candidate to come and save the day; accomplish the work we’re dreaming for them to do.

Linus has such hope that the Great Pumpkin will finally make an appearance. His friends on the other hand are taking a more realistic approach. “You must be crazy,” Charlie Brown said. “When are you going to stop believing in something that isn’t true?”

With the divisive presidential election, and many other elections occurring at the local and state levels, there’s many of us on all sides of political parties looking at the major candidates and questioning why someone could ever support them. We are able to so clearly look at the other political side and see them as crazy. I’ve seen it firsthand from friends and family supporting an array of political candidates.

Beyond the Great Pumpkin character, so many of us will feel like Charlie Brown as he goes trick-or-treating. On Nov. 9, a good portion of the country will get a rock instead of the candy they hoped for when they opened their bag for a sweet treat. It won’t be the first time any of us feel like we’ve gotten a rock when we were hoping for a candy bar. It also won’t be the last. Just as Charlie Brown got rocks with every house he visited, we will too. Even if the candidate you voted for is elected to office, he or she will likely be unable to enact all of his or her proposals put forth during the campaign. We all get rocks in this life.

What I love most about “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” is Linus’ hopefulness toward the pumpkin. Each year, he firmly believes in his heart that the Great Pumpkin will arrive and spread the joy for which he so desperately longs. When it doesn’t happen, Linus doesn’t give up. He returns the next year with just as much hope that his dream pumpkin will appear — the same dream many of us had at the beginning of this election cycle. For some, they are able to vote for their Great Pumpkin this year. The rest of us are still in the pumpkin patch waiting. Like Linus, I hope we don’t give up on waiting in the patch. The Great Pumpkin may never come; it may not actually exist, but maintaing hope for that day keeps us optimistic as a nation and moving forward toward our ideals.

And like Charlie Brown, we may not get the candy we want, but we still get something. Perhaps there’s something to be said for ending up with a pile of rocks. Maybe, just maybe, there is something great we can do with that pile.