Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is a well-known author, but he wrote more than great books.
In 2006, a high school English class in New York City wrote letters asking their favorite authors to visit the school.
Several students chose Vonnegut but, being 84 and saying he looked more like an iguana, he chose not to visit. But he wrote them this advice:
"Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what's inside you, to make your soul grow.
"Seriously! I mean starting right now, do art and do it for the rest of your lives. ... Dance home after school, and sing in the shower and on and on …"
He asked each student to write a six-line poem that rhymed, and said: "… But don't tell anybody what you're doing. Don't show it or recite it to anybody, not even your girlfriend or parents or whatever …"
Then he said, "Tear it up into teeny-weeny pieces, and discard them into widely separated trash receptacles. You will find that you have already been gloriously rewarded for your poem. You have experienced becoming, learned a lot more about what's inside you, and you have made your soul grow."
Vonnegut died five months after he wrote that letter, which you can find in the book "More Letters of Note" by Shaun Usher, and online at lettersofnote.com.
What he wrote stands as a lesson for all of us — all ages — and certainly remains an important part of his literary legacy.
I’m Lonny Cain, and that’s my perspective.
