Unexpected things can happen if you send a letter to someone you’d love to meet. Someone famous. A person you’d expect to have far too much to do to answer you.
Here is a letter that worked, but not in the expected way. Five letters, actually.
A class of students responded to an assignment from their teacher at Xavier High School, a Jesuit, all-boys academy in New York.
Ms. Lockwood was her name. She asked them each to write to their favorite author to persuade him or her to visit their classroom. Five of these letters targeted Kurt Vonnegut, the superb novelist.
Vonnegut’s response didn’t include a promise to visit the young men. What he offered, however, was something better—a letter that has become famous by itself.
The 84-year-old man urged them to partake in the joy, gift, and focus of creation. He gave them directions on how to make themselves larger, fuller, more self-aware, and take the road to the lifelong task of “becoming.” The missive, including Vonnegut’s cartoon of himself, is directly below.
November 5, 2006
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The 1965 photo of Kurt Vonnegut is the work of Bernard Gotfryd, sourced from Wikipedia Commons.
I absolutely LOVE the Vonnegut letter, Gerald. Thanks a million for sharing it. I wish I’d have received such a gift when I was coming of age in the 70s.
Anyway, thanks to you I plan to pay forward this gift by reading bits of it aloud at my next substitute teaching gig here in Albuquerque.
All the best to you, old friend.
Thanks, Frank. That will be the perfect use of Vonnegut’s wise and clever letter. Your voice is the perfect one to carry the message!
I heartily agree with the advice, indeed it is the process that helped me heal my heart and soul, taking all the shreds and sewing them back into a shape that suited me so much better. Use what creative skills one has, and we will find we don’t use them up, rather we develop them even more. Discovering ourselves and what we love is the start, we then develop them to become lifelong companions who continue to help us through our lives, through the ups and downs, definitely the downs, as we find our way back up into the sunlight!
You are the kind of student of life that would make Kurt Vonnegut proud, Tamara. Thank you.
I love this so much. The reminder to live with abandon…create and allow the “becoming” to occur. 💕
Vonnegut lived an interesting life, including time in a German POW camp during the merciless firebombing of Dresden during WWII. His sense of life and death doubtless informed that recognition of the need to live with abandon. Thanks, Vicki.
Love this letter from Kurt Vonnegut: the wisdom of the years imparted to young minds. Thanks for sharing, Dr. Stein.
Glad you liked it, Rosaliene.
Ah, priceless advice for any age! Thanks for sharing this gem, Dr. Stein! Here’s to making our souls grow!
Thanks, Wynne. For really impressive souls, just remember to add some fertilizer from the garden shop!