One of my beach books last week was Kurt Vonnegut’s memoir “Man Without a Country”. This is a breezy, easy read that takes about two hours, but Vonnegut’s ideas take much longer to digest. Among my favorite ideas in the book is the principle that every one of us alive today “just got here”. We didn’t create the mess of a world we have to live in.
Another intriguing idea is the value of the teachings of Jesus even to someone who does not believe in His divinity. Vonnegut points out that nobody seems to be lobbying to post the Sermon on the Mount in public buildings, just the 10 Commandments. Imagine, he writes, posting “Blessed are the merciful” in American courthouses. Revolutionary!
He also opines that the nuclear family is a frail and fragile institution on which to pin our hopes. Vonnegut writes that we need more people to talk to, to relate to, to deal with face to face than the nuclear family offers. Cyber-relationships seem to him to isolate and alienate us even more than ever, and he encourages us to get out of our houses and deal with some real live human beings every day.
All in all, reading this was several hours very well spent.
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I hadn't read vonnegut in decades. In my teens, I had been mesmerized by Welcome to the Monkey House and Cat's Cradle. Since B of Champions, I've been lukewarm at best. But his memoir was deadon. He said what I believe and think. 'Tis a sad era and sugar-coating it won't help solve it. Bravo Old Kurt. by a guy who just coined a term: accidental homeschooler.
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