Over the past few weeks, the amount of writing or really the amount of creativity that I have been able to muster has been slim to none. It has been a bit frustrating, since I have not been able to gather my thoughts down on paper. It has been a problem since my reentry from Kenya, over a month ago. Well that was until I came to a realization the other day…
Last Monday was the four year anniversary of the death of Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Now the remembrance of this icon, would have benefited more, had I written, posted, and retweeted it on the anniversary of his passing. Yet, sadly that did not happen, so here we are ten days later. Again, had I not suffered from some writer's block, I feel that this would have been more effective on the anniversary of his passing. Anyway, I digress…
Kurt Vonnegut had written some of the most criticized and censored works of the 20th century. He joined the leagues of J.D. Salinger, Aldous Huxley, Joseph Heller, George Orwell, James Joyce, and even John Steinbeck, when he published, Slaughterhouse Five. This book is probably one of his most critically acclaimed, due to its satire and critic of WWII, namely the Dresden bombing. Other notable works have been Breakfast of Champions, Cat's Cradle, The Sirens of Titan, Jailbird, Mother Night, and God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. And once again, I digress…
To get to point, I had been trying to figure what I would say about one of my favorite writers. I was wracking my brain with what I would say, truly, what I could say. How do you remember someone like that? I mean, everyone does their tribute videos, post their favorite quotes, or even pastes countless photos of visage all over their blogs. Then, there's me.
I contemplated what I could share. What like snippets of wisdom could I share that I gained from reading his works and listening to him speak. So below, a few points that I feel he taught us, or me, at least:
1. "When I write, I feel like an armless, legless man with a crayon in his mouth."
Writing is difficult. Creativity is deep. Organization and clarity are set amiss so very often. He stated that writing is a process that requires time and energy to truly create something, otherwise you end up with colorful swiggly lines on a piece of paper. If you follow this pattern, you write tripe that no one, not even you, cares about rereading, not to mention, ascribing your name to. This is first quote to still out to me, because I felt this way so many times. It almost always seems like you just happen upon something worth while, when you are writing. In a way, it is an accident or purely coincidental. Pages and pages of words and phrases lining the paper, and finally, you find something worth sharing.
2. "I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, 'If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.'"
This over-quoted, back drop from many Vonnegut speeches and A Man Without a Country, is the next selection for what I've learned.
It is such a simple truth, yet it is cleverly stated. Take notice when you are happy. Be all right with being happy. This seems to tie in with another Vonnegut quote, "Jokes can be noble. Laughs are exactly as honorable as tears. Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward — and since I can start thinking and striving again that much sooner."
In a way, you determine your mood. You get to decide today if you are going happy or you are going to miserable and irritable. Vonnegut even went as far as to satirize this with many of his characters, including one of my favorites, Eliot Rosewater. He wrote characters who always knew when they were happy and others, that, well, never truly understood that happiness is in the eye of the beholder. This phrase even begs to ask the question, can you even distinguish when you are happy? Do you even know when you are happy? Just some food for thought.
3. "You learn about life by the accidents you have, over and over again…"
Life is a learning process. Time and time again, we make errors and there is something to be said about the process in which learn from these "accidents." Yet, there are those who are afraid to fail, to make mistakes. A sentence later, Vonnegut stated that even "…writing is accident." Whether that can be agreed upon or not, the truth is we learn so much from the accidents and failures we experience. My friend, David Fredreicksz, teaches on learning from failure. Instead of wallowing on failure and turning it into a pity party, we should see what it can teach us about life. Kurt, well, he was ahead of the curve. The accidents and mistakes of life train us and become the best teachers we could have ever asked for. Treat these experiences as teachers and learn from them, otherwise, we are repeat the very thing we abhor.
To sum it all up, thanks Kurt, for all of you inspiring words, clever wit, and just all-around sarcastic nature. You will be greatly missed. In your honor, I think I shall read the Sirens of Titan and God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater.
