“The year was 2081, and everyone was finally equal.”

Today, the world seems a little duller  knowing that Kurt Vonnegut is gone. I think the very first Vonnegut I read was Cat’s Cradle when I was in high school, recommended by my good friend Jeff. We didn’t have Slaughterhouse-Five on our course syllabus, so Vonnegut’s books became a subversive pleasure–something to read when I should have been doing my homework or reading the approved novels. Books are so much more joyful when you aren’t required to read them. Still, I introduce Harrison Bergeron every year in my English classes and hope my students go on from  there to meet Billy Pilgrim, Kilgore Trout, Eliot Rosewater , and maybe to practice a little bokononism some day. I like to think Kurt will be watching from one of his alternate planes of existance..and smiling.