Kurt Vonnegut: Quotes and hexagrams




I'm on another Vonnegut kick. Every once in a while, I need his daffy wisdom and his piercing eye. Today, I jotted some of his words in my journal, and started to wonder what I Ching hexagrams (principles) might match up with them. Sorry for the spacing glitches -- Sometimes the html goes wonky and if I try to fix it, the mess gets worse ... So it goes.


Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.
(Hexagram 1, THE CREATIVE)


We'd all do well to start over again, preferably in kindergarten.
(Hexagram 4, YOUTHFUL INEXPERIENCE)


There are too many of us and we are all too far apart.
(Hexagram 12, ISOLATION / DISHARMONY)


A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.
(Hexagram 13, COMMUNITY)


Love may fail, but courtesy will prevail.
(Hexagram 15, MODESTY)


It is a very mixed blessing to be brought back from the dead.
(Hexagram 24, RETURN)





... power corrupts us, and absolute power corrupts us absolutely. Human beings are chimpanzees who get crazy drunk on power. By saying that our leaders are power-drunk chimpanzees, am I in danger of wrecking the morale of our soldiers fighting and dying in the Middle East? Their morale, like so many lifeless bodies, is already shot to pieces. They are being treated, as I never was, like toys a rich kid got for Christmas.
(Hexagram 34, GREAT POWER)


My father said, "When in doubt, castle."
(Hexagram 46, ASCENDING)


Peculiar travel arrangements are dancing lessons from God.
(Hexagram 56, TRAVELING)


Live by the harmless truths that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy.
(Hexagram 61, INNER TRUTH)


So it goes.
(Hexagram 64, BEFORE THE END)

Comments

Jan said…
Yes, yes, yes! I fondly remember hearing Vonnegut speak at my college in Bellingham, WA way back in 1970!
Jaliya said…
Oh, Jan -- tell me more! Lucky you :-) I am a tad tardy in falling in love with Vonnegut's mind ... am making up for lost time!

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