And Now the World Will Never Be the Same; or, The Pause Button Doesnt Work

There really is no good way to pass on the following news: My hero has died. Kurt Vonnegut was a man. It's really plain and simple. And today he is a dead man. April 12 will now become a day of yearly day of mourning for me, a time to remember a truly great man who made a difference in my life.

Perhaps you knew that I hated to read. Despised it actually. Im sure of the reasons why I hated it, but I dont need to get into them now. The important thing is that I learned to love reading after being introduced to Kurt Vonnegut through his marvelous tale "Slaughterhouse 5." Im not going to go into details about the story - if you havent read it, shame on you - yet I will tell you that his descriptive prose and inventive storytelling kept me interested from the moment I cracked the binding to the last word on the last page: Pooteetweet.

The rest is history. I learned to love reading and then writting because of this man who I never even had the opportunity to meet. Ive become a more tolerant and understanding person because of his views on life - many of which I have adopted as my own. Sure Ive expanded those views and took them into different directions, but this isnt about me.

My general point is that in this world, where everything has been blended together - essentially forming the color brown - he was out there being himself, being different, being florescent pink, and loving it. And is there really any better way to live your life than creating your own rules and following them?

If there is one thing I wish people could take away from any Vonnegut story it would be this: Notice the oddities of life, and enjoy them.

And what else is there really to say? A great man has died today, and his point of view will be missed.