God Bless You, Mr. Vonnegut

I have been super busy the past few weeks, too busy to have even caught the news that author (and some time Cape Cod resident) Kurt Vonnegut has passed away.

After reading Slaughterhouse Five my junior year of high school, I began devouring his books. They helped me come to terms with my personal frustration with the establishment of that particular time: the Gulf War and the Thomas Supreme Court hearings. I found his novels accessible and evocative in a way that I am sure a generation before me found J.D. Salinger.

Anyhow, I like this quote that the NY Times chose to include in his obituary:

“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.’ ”

So it goes.