It was with great sadness that I learned of the death this week of Kurt Vonnegut, one of my favourite writers.
As well as being the author of many a wonderful novel, he was also an activist in the Humanist movement, I believe being it's President at one point. His stories were often inspired by his puzzlement over the behaviour, or misbehaviour, of the human beings he shared the planet with. These stories have in turn made me laugh out loud on trains, and weep on buses.
So it goes.
He once wrote a note to Trident Ploughshares to decline an invitation to join us on an action.
"You of Trident Ploughshares 2000 are the shock troops of the sane in the war against insanity. I am honored by your invitation to be on the front lines with you at faslane on Saint Valentines' day, and especially in a year so full of zeros . . a blank slate. Yours will be among the very first messages to end its blankness, and with this oldie but goodie: Thou shalt not kill."
Sorry I can't be there. Pax Vobiscum Kurt Vonnegut"
Pax Vobiscum to you, Mr Vonnegut. Peace be with you.
As well as being the author of many a wonderful novel, he was also an activist in the Humanist movement, I believe being it's President at one point. His stories were often inspired by his puzzlement over the behaviour, or misbehaviour, of the human beings he shared the planet with. These stories have in turn made me laugh out loud on trains, and weep on buses.
So it goes.
He once wrote a note to Trident Ploughshares to decline an invitation to join us on an action.
"You of Trident Ploughshares 2000 are the shock troops of the sane in the war against insanity. I am honored by your invitation to be on the front lines with you at faslane on Saint Valentines' day, and especially in a year so full of zeros . . a blank slate. Yours will be among the very first messages to end its blankness, and with this oldie but goodie: Thou shalt not kill."
Sorry I can't be there. Pax Vobiscum Kurt Vonnegut"
Pax Vobiscum to you, Mr Vonnegut. Peace be with you.
"The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist."
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