I am so very, very disheartened that the world has lost Kurt Vonnegut. I’ve read almost all of his works, and his book God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian — readable in 20 minutes — is such a beautiful highlighting of humanity that it’s thus far my favorite book of all time. I actually just re-read it again last week after feeling down and dejected, losing a young man that we coded earlier.

Vonnegut greatly influenced my perspective and world view, or at least gave words and sentiments to my thoughts about the world and how humans should treat each other. With that, I leave you with some of my favorite quotations (many from my favorite book):

“We are here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is.”
“I am a humanist, which means, in part, trying to behave decently without expectation of rewards or punishment after you are dead.”
“So it goes.”
“One thing which Uncle Alex found objectionable about human beings was that they seldom took time out to notice when they were happy. He himself did his best to acknowledge it when times were sweet. We could be drinking lemonade in the shade of an apple tree in the summertime, and he would interrupt the conversation to say, “If this isn’t nice, what is?”"

And Vonnegut wrote for his own Epitaph:
“THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC”

Goodbye, Kurt. I’ll see you up in heaven.