As I watch the news about Virginia Tech tonight, I can’t help but think of a memorial I read about Kurt Vonnegut in the New York Times.
“To Mr. Vonnegut, the only possible redemption for the madness and apparent meaninglessness of existence was human kindness. The title character in his 1965 novel, “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, or Pearls Before Swine,” summed up his philosophy:
‘Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies — ‘God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.’ “
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“Where there is love there is life.”
Mahatma Gandhi
In this article, Kurt Vonnuget also referred to librarians as “heroes”. How shall we live up to this legacy? I hope it is being where the technology meets the students, where the “right book” meets the student, and where our hearts meet each individual who comes into our path — may we meet them with respect, with “kindness”, with interest into what they need, and may we take away from them the satisfaction that we were there at the right moment to fulfill what we have been trained to do — serve.
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