LOVING
THE LOSERS

Topics: Anxiety; Depression; Failure; Hope; Hopelessness; Insecurity; Insignificance

References: Proverbs 13:12; Ecclesiastes 1; Matthew 5:3–5; 1 Corinthians 1:26–31

Peanuts cartoonist Charles Schulz often reflected on the sadness of life through his characters. He seemed to love losers; even Charlie Brown’s baseball idol, Joe Shlabotnik, was the worst player in the pros, and with that came the corollary of losing at love. Every major character has an unrequited love—Charlie Brown and the little red-haired girl, Lucy and Schroeder, Linus and Miss Othmar. Even Snoopy gets dumped at the altar.

Happiness may be a warm puppy, but as cartoonist Charles Schulz once said, “Happiness is not very funny.” Schulz infused his Peanuts cartoons with his lifelong feelings of depression and insecurity—he had his heart broken by a real-life red-haired girl—and that showed how one could feel lonely even in a crowd.

Many of his cartoons have two characters outside, at night, staring at a field of stars. “Let’s go inside and watch television,” Charlie Brown says in one. “I’m beginning to feel insignificant.”

—James Poniewozik, “The Good and the Grief,” Time (December 27, 1999)