I met Mr. Vonnegut very briefly after a commencement address he gave at a college in Atlanta about ten tears ago. My son’s girlfriend was in the graduating class. My only acquaintance with Mr. Vonnegut’s work was via a small movie called “Who am I this time?” which was probably based on one of his short stories.

I liked his speech, and really love the movie – so I wanted to get his autograph. He was standing on the landing of a campus building, with a single police bodyguard. It seemed to me that he had just gotten away from the milling crowd, maybe to have a smoke, though I don’t remember if he was smoking. The bodyguard tensed a bit as I approached, but relaxed as he saw I was friendly.

As to the autograph, Mr. Vonnegut said something like ” I don’t do those. Once you start there is no end to it.” I was disappointed, but, reflexively held out my hand, saying “well, thanks anyway”. He shook hands with me. He seemed very kind and not the least bit ‘affected’ in any way.

Steve, I really enjoyed this article. The part about many, many failures finally teaching you how to succeed rings true. Your humor is wonderful.

I will now go about reading some Vonnegut, and some more of your work.

Thank you.

It is very timely, I think, to reconsider Vonnegut, now more than ever in this politically challenging and environmentally vexing historical moment. As you rightly point out, there is a real lack of love in this country as far as what we choose to do, what we choose to ignore and way too much self-aggrandizement. Hello, facebook, anyone? How is it that we are so thoughtless and unkind? I am left with the image of Vonnegut himself, old and wizened, facing an audience of many, carefully crossing the stage alone so as not to trip over the microphone cord…and no one there to help him across.

Thanks again for this riveting essay.