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April 12, 2007
So it goes.
I'm taking a break from my regular knit blogging to comment on the sad events of last night. One of my heroes, Kurt Vonnegut, passed away at age 84 from brain injuries. It was only a few years ago, that I started to read his works, and from the first chapter of "Slaughter-House Five."
He had a style of writing like no one else. His books were always darkly comedic, and I was quite taken with the way he stuck himself into these fictional situations. Vonnegut was one of the few famous figures who was quite frank about being an agnostic and a humanist. He summed up humanism ( and my own philosophy) best when he said "I am a humanist, which means, in part, that I have tried to behave decently without any expectation of rewards or punishments after I’m dead."
A few favorite quotes:
Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you've got about a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies -- 'God damn it, you've got to be kind.'
Let us devote to unselfishness the frenzy we once gave gold and underpants.
We are healthy only to the extent that our ideas are humane.
I still believe that peace and plenty and happiness can be worked out some way. I am a fool.
All persons, living and dead, are purely coincidental.
We are here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is.
Listen: we are here on Earth to fart around. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise.
Goodnight, Mr. Vonnegut. Sleep well.
So it goes.
Posted by Holly at 09:55 PM | Comments (1)