WHAT KIND OF GOD WOULD ALLOW A THING LIKE THIS TO HAPPEN?
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post-script dated 31st August 2009 at 09:10 am.
Dear Dawn,
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When I included this cartoon in the homemade birthday card I sent to you I was expressing my impish sense of humour and I was not trying to make some wider point.
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I was not making out that human suffering is a suitable subject for mirth nor was I suggesting that in God's eyes all such suffering is seen as equally trivial.
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First off; John Callahan is an American cartoonist who is quadriplegic following a car accident. He cannot grasp anything with his fingers and so he draws by holding the pen between his hands. And 'yes' his humour can be dark, which I do indeed quite like.
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Secondly; the humour here is not aimed at human suffering but is found in the cartoon character's inappropriate sense of moral outrage at God over what the self-regarding cartoon character perceives to be a major existential crisis.
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I guess some things just aren't funny if you have to explain them!
God Bless,
Pete.
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PPS: 3rd September 2009. It has been pointed out to me that the Callahan cartoon suggests that all human suffering is somehow beneficial to the sufferer (it is fair to say that the cartoon character could probably afford to lose a few pounds!). But - in all honesty - it never crossed my mind that that was the main conclusion to draw from either Callahan, or by adoption, the birthday card I made. I do feel that to attribute such sentiments to me on this basis is surreal.
