Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Blues for America

I love Kurt Vonnegut. Truth be told, I haven't read too much of his writing. Slaughterhouse Five, a while ago, then again when I taught an elective class on Vonnegut, which is when I also read Sirens of Titan. I also used a couple of his shorter stories with my 8th graders. They liked it, like I do, because he's honest and funny and brutal. I saw this link on someone's facebook, which is where I get most of anything anyway. Thanks friends.

Blues for America
Kurt Vonnegut

I don't have a really good summary for this. Read it. It isn't too long. I haven't really thought about what it means or what it means to me or what I think about it. While I read it, my brain sort of went, huh, yeah, I know what you mean, sorta. A lot of what Vonnegut writes about I haven't been through, so I can't really say that I know what he means, exactly. But I think he expresses it the way I would if I had. And when I do chance upon some overlap, I think he sums up my thoughts pretty nicely. We have a whole heck of a lot of opportunity, and for some reason, we seem determined to squander it in an effort to make the world a greedy and unhappy place. Not being terribly powerful or important, though, I don't bother to do much about it. I live my life, fight more with my family than I should, try to tell everyone I love that I love them, and figure out what things I can do that will make me smile the most often. 

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