"He's up in heaven now..."

If you read Timequake you should get the title of this post.


"Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward." - Kurt Vonnegut Jr. 1922 -2007

As I talked on the phone this morning I fell down a set of stairs. Falling down stairs is one of my biggest daily fears, I usually take my time going up and down steps as to avoid looking like the town fool as I tumble, gathering bruises and lessons on the way down. When I realized that I wasn't seriously injured I just started to giggle to myself. Was is the fact that I had discovered the perfect way to end a phone call? Was it the fact that I screamed "Holy Shit Fuck!" when I began to fall? I have no idea, but my first reaction was to laugh.

I've laughed when I've screwed up.

I've laughed when someone has tried to fight me.

I laugh by myself in a car on a lonely road trip.

I've laughed at my misfortune, but more often at the expense of others.

Hell I've even laughed out loud at a funeral.

I've never laughed at Carrot Top or Carlos Mencia, but thats a different post all together.

Vonnegut was the first person who ever made me laugh out loud through use of the printed word. The more of his work I read the more I understood how humor is a not only a decent defense mechanism, but also a very versatile tool. A tool capable of tackling everyday issues like relationships and family as well as issues of war and religion. It has been my weapon of choice for some time now and will be until I turn into fertilizer. I smile and laugh a lot and I love to make others do the same.

When Elizabeth called to tell me Kurt Vonnegut had died last night, I involuntarily smiled. It sucks to lose an idol when you have so few, but there is nothing to cry about. All I can do is say "Thanks Mr. Vonnegut" or maybe "Ting-a-ling" would be more appropriate.


"If you protest. If you think that death is a terrible thing, then you have not understood what I have said. You see, it's time for you to go home... to your wives and children. It's time for me to be dead for a little while... and then live again." - Billy Pilgrim from the novel Slaughterhouse Five.