Kurt Vonnegut

One would think that if I enjoy Kurt Vonnegut's books so much I would just go to Amazon.com and load up on new ones. But no, I go to my public library used book sales and try to find them that way. Once I actually found "Slapstick" and it was so profoundly sad and funny, that it hit my own tuning fork which in turn set off a ringing that has never stopped.

In "Slapstick" the premise is that one can never have too many relatives. It is true, so I sent it to this first cousin once removed, one of my own favorite relatives. I have looked for another copy for ten years. I look in the mystery, classic, science fiction sections and find nothing. Maybe I will tomorrow. Yes, there will be another used book sale. Always another.

So until tomorrow I read what I can online. In "Common Dreams News Center: Breaking News and Views for the Progressive Community" is an essay by Kurt Vonnegut called "Cold Turkey." It was published May 12, 2004 by "In These Times."

Among other things he mentions:
"For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes. But, often with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course that’s Moses, not Jesus. I haven’t heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere.

“Blessed are the merciful” in a courtroom? “Blessed are the peacemakers” in the Pentagon? Give me a break!

I know he is a radical. Imagine being an 81 year old radical. Age is no respector of which way a person leans, unless one has a bad back and then the bend is always forward, emphasizing the direction one is looking.

This favorite relative that I sent the book to? He is the epitome of the Beatitudes, although famous in his own right. He has a T-REX named for him as he was the guy who found the huge pelvis sticking out of the gumbo south of my grandparents homestead in northwestern South Dakota.