My Obligatory Vonnegut Piece

I loved the work of Kurt Vonnegut. I am not alone, because all of his books stayed in print or came back into print over the course of 50 years.

He was due back in town in April. We're celebrating the novel Slaughterhouse-five with this One City, One Book deal.

As most kids, childhood was upsetting and traumatic. So I read all his stuff. It made me laugh out loud. It reminded me of the dark humor of my grandmother (who was born the summer after he was, only on the kitchen table in the ghetto. To my knowledge they never did or would've crossed paths.) I always wondered if it was being well in touch with one's European roots, Indianapolis of the 20's-30's, or the Great Depression followed by World War 2 that made them sound the same. Gram passed last November. Mr. Vonnegut passed last night. I doubt I would've gotten a good answer out of either of them.

However, Sis and I spent an awful lot of time raising ourselves and our brother. A book never mentioned in all the tribute pieces, and one Vonnegut even rates poorly, was his book Slapstick. Sis and I loved that book. We still refer to each other as Betty and Bobby, because she is the left brain and I am the right, and it becomes painfully obvious when we are more than 10 miles away from each other. We had well-intentioned parents who ended up torn up by societal expectations. And we ultimately found family is the artificial one we created for ourselves out of our friends, my wife, and our in-laws. While the Lonesome No More!-model in the book failed miserably, setting one up in our personal lives has been successful and fulfilling.

My suggestion to anyone is to read that book and think about what it means to make a satisfying grown-up family out of the people who are good to you and in whom you can place your trust. You can't choose when you are a kid, but you can once you are an adult. Trust and Respect. Isn't that really what love is? Isn't that what ultimately really makes a family?

Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, James C. Dobson/Focus on the Family.

Good-bye, Mr. Vonnegut. Thanks for the insights.