Day 11: "I Love Mankind..." by Charles Schulz
"I Love Mankind..." by Charles Schulz
harles Monroe "Sparky" Schulz, was an American cartoonist and creator of one of the most popular comic strips of all time—Peanuts. He wrote the famous line “I love mankind... it’s people I can’t stand!!” for his cartoon character Linus van Pelt.
His “I love mankind” cartoon became one of the most thought-provoking and paradoxical statements in modern times. The supporting female character Lydia scorns Linus by using a Shakespearean line that says, ‘Love will not be spurred to what it loathes’ (The Two Gentlemen of Verona–Act 5, Scene 2). There is a gaping disconnect between Linus's own feelings for our entire human species and for every individual member in it. Schulz’s paradox puts forward the question, "Is it even possible to love humanity without bothering to love every individual human?"
On day eleven of the Season of Creation we use Schulz's last panel by substituting the word "mankind" for "nature" and the word "people" for any part of nature that you cannot stand, e.g. "I love nature... it's mosquitoes I can't stand!!" 8thWorker.us
This reminded me of my four-year-old’s question 30 years ago: “Mama, why did God make ipis?”
ReplyDeleteWonderful! Thank you for this! GBU!
DeleteHi po, Fr. JM...
ReplyDeleteHmmm... I was just also reminded by someone who said, "She loves nature" yet, every lizard that enters her room will never come out alive! Haha
But there is another completely different person, who really loves nature... I remembered in "the story of a soul", St. Therese of the Child Jesus was asked by this particular difficult sister to clean the Chapel including eliminating (killing) spiders if she found some.. She did not obey knowing that they are not doing anything to her and plus the fact that they are also creatures of God... Truly, Saints sense God even in the creepiest creatures because nonetheless they are also created by Him...
Thanks much! GBU!