A sad day indeed.
Farewell Kurt - you made us laugh... you made us think.
I hope your prediction came true: "everything was beautiful and nothing hurt"
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0704120009apr12,1,2511007.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
Kurt Vonnegut
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Charyn Compeau
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It's difficult for me to express the impact that Vonnegut's work had on me, but reading him made me look at life a little differently.
In my last year of high school, my grandmother had health issues that affected her brain. Being young and inexperienced, I felt uncomfortable spending time with her because she was not always "in the moment."
Slaughterhouse Five was one of my favorite books at that time and I realized that, like Billy Pilgrim, my grandmother had become unstuck in time.
She would often not recognize me - which is what upset me in the first place - but I soon realized she didn't recognize me because she was living in a part of her past where I did not yet exist. Once I understood this, I reveled in my grandmother's time travels.
She could tell me about events in her life with complete clarity, as though these things had occurred the night before. The stories were remarkable.
There were so many simplistic-seeming concepts in Vonnegut's work that wound up turning profound on me, that stayed in my heart.
"As I read the Book of Genesis, God didn't give Adam and Eve a whole planet.
He gave them a manageable piece of property, for the sake of discussion let's say 200 acres.
I suggest to you Adams and Eves that you set as your goals the putting of some small part of the planet into something like safe and sane and decent order.
There's a lot of cleaning up to do.
There's a lot of rebuilding to do, both spiritual and physical.
And, again, there's going to be a lot of happiness. Don't forget to notice!"
In my last year of high school, my grandmother had health issues that affected her brain. Being young and inexperienced, I felt uncomfortable spending time with her because she was not always "in the moment."
Slaughterhouse Five was one of my favorite books at that time and I realized that, like Billy Pilgrim, my grandmother had become unstuck in time.
She would often not recognize me - which is what upset me in the first place - but I soon realized she didn't recognize me because she was living in a part of her past where I did not yet exist. Once I understood this, I reveled in my grandmother's time travels.
She could tell me about events in her life with complete clarity, as though these things had occurred the night before. The stories were remarkable.
There were so many simplistic-seeming concepts in Vonnegut's work that wound up turning profound on me, that stayed in my heart.
"As I read the Book of Genesis, God didn't give Adam and Eve a whole planet.
He gave them a manageable piece of property, for the sake of discussion let's say 200 acres.
I suggest to you Adams and Eves that you set as your goals the putting of some small part of the planet into something like safe and sane and decent order.
There's a lot of cleaning up to do.
There's a lot of rebuilding to do, both spiritual and physical.
And, again, there's going to be a lot of happiness. Don't forget to notice!"