The German's Silly Sermon

Palm Sunday by Kurt Vonnegut


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I love Kurt Vonnegut!!

I got this from the library not realizing that it was non-fiction and a sort of autobiographical collage (kind of like a blog before they existed). So it wasn't a tight, neat, clever story like Cat's Cradle, but I couldn't help totally loving this guy's writing, and much of his perspective on the world.

Some theological highlights:

-"I don't think anybody ever dreaded hell as much as most of us dread the contempt of our fellowmen. Under our new and heartfelt moral code, we might be able to horrify would-be evildoers with just that: the contempt of their fellowmen. For that contempt to be effective, though, we would need cohesive communities, which are about as common as bald eagles these days."

-"The nuclear family doesn't provide nearly enough companionship."

-"Be warned: if you allow yourself to see dignity in someone, you have doomed yourself to wanting to understand and help whoever it is."

-"It seems to me that the most universal revolutionary wish now or ever is a wish for heaven, a wish by a human being to be honored by angels for something other than beauty or usefulness."

For someone who calls himself at various times an atheist, a Unitarian,a skeptical Free Thinker, and a Christ-loving agnostic, Vonnegut is pretty spot-on with much that I love in Christianity. He named his book "Palm Sunday" and finished it with a sermon. He quotes Bertrand Russell and Jesus in the same breath. And it's a really, really refreshing breath that I find myself never able to get enough of.

View all my reviews >>

Guilty Pleasures

I'm home alone for the weekend, so it's Risky Business time! I haven't hired any prostitutes or danced around in my underwear (I live in a glass house!), but I have indulged myself Devon-style with:

Apple Cider - I'm working on my third gallon in as many weeks. Hot, cold, sometimes with a dash of caramel sauce. Has single-handedly put an end to my coffee addiction.

NPR - It's pledge drive week, and I still listened for like four hours straight.

Dancing in the kitchen, singing in the shower - One of the only drawbacks of living in community is the lack of opportunity to dance in the kitchen and sing in the shower audience-free. When I spot a chance to do either one, I seize it.

Baking - I'm kind of disturbed by my own increasingly-visible domestic streak. This one hasn't manifest itself yet this weekend; I'm biding my time before busting out an apple pie.

Shopping - Despite regularly touting my disgust with consumerism, I think a small part of me still inherited the joy-of-shopping gene. It only works when I buy stuff because I CAN and not because I need to, and when it's really CHEAP. Yesterday I got a bike lock on sale and four articles of clothing for $30. It felt good.

Convenient Store Cappuccino - I don't like it because it's all that good, or remotely resembles coffee, but because it's comfortable. In Camden, we girls used to trudge over to 7-11 whenever we were feeling down and drug up on French Vanilla. Still makes me smile.

Puzzles & Games - I've wasted a lot of my life on Scrabulous, Farkle, Word Twist, Scramble, Sudoku, and crosswords. And I probably won't stop anytime soon.

Chick Flicks - Most of the time I'm not wallowing in loneliness - I just genuinely like them. The vast majority are horribly written and completely unrealistic, but I guess I like the assurance of a happy ending. Usually after a weekend-full, I'm done for a few months, though.

Christmas Music - Perhaps the guiltiest pleasure of all: I busted out the Christmas music today! Granted, it was in the 30's when I woke up, so it definitely feels cold enough. I'll try to take a break for a few weeks, but honestly nothing beats the blues (or just makes me feel at home) like a good dose of "Silent Night" or "O Come all ye Faithful." **sigh**