Crap.Vonnegut.And Surviving This Thing.

Today has been a crappy day, a real crappy day. Without getting into painful specifics, I don't know what the hell I'm going to do when I graduate, I have two 10-pagers looming over my head, and everyone seems to want to bail out of commitments, leaving the rest of us to handle not only our own messes but theirs as well. Plus, Mother Nature decided to crap on us all day--it's okay though, I'm sure we deserve it. And I know I'm supposed to be grateful for the rain and the clouds and the misery, and normally I am (sometimes). But today I just wasn't having it.


Anywho, after using Glee as an attempt to try and shut out the disappointing world just to have it come knocking on my door to deal another low blow (that's right, it interrupted me but I said wait until the commercials before you continue to add to the crappiness), I decided to curl up with some quality Kurt Vonnegut and his A Man Without A Country. I have to be honest, I don't know as much about him as many other people do, but I DO know just after reading the first half of his novel that he's someone we could all learn from; plus, his book has given me some seriously good laughs over the past few days and particularly tonight. 


My saving grace today has been my boyfriend Chris who puts up with all this crap and has repeatedly, with sympathy but sternness, encouraged me to keep my head up and not give up on myself or others. Thus, the following passage by Vonnegut made me think of him but also of the general human capacity we all possess to keep each other going when all we wanna do is throw in the reigns...


"I turned eighty-two on November 11, 2004. What's it like to be old? I can't parallel park worth a damn anymore, so please don't watch while I try to do it. And gravity has become a lot less friendly and manageable than it used to be.


When you get to my age, if you get to my age, and if you have reproduced, you will find yourself asking your own children, who are themselves middle-aged, 'What is life all about?' I have seven kids, three of them orphaned nephews. 


I put my big question about life to my son the pediatrician. Dr. Vonnegut said this to his doddering old dad: 'Father, we are here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is.'"


And so we are once again reminded that the greatest gift we can give to another is just to be there, helping one another maintain at least a bit of our sanity. 


Together, we can get through this thing--whatever it is.