reading vonnegut

Because the radio reception is so bad up here, and because cell coverage isn't reliable (or free), I stop in the library once every six weeks or so to settle up fines from overdue items and select another book on tape to listen to in the car. Last month was Umberto Eco's The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loanna; this month is some Fox-news-inspired Tom Clancy-esque knock-off.

As I was getting ready to check out, I noticed Kurt Vonnegut's memoir A Man Without a Country published last year. It's not a deep read, but when I can snatch 10 minutes here and there, it's entertaining. From this morning's lesson, a brief meditation on addiction: cigarrettes are "a fire on one end and a fool on the other." But the paragraph that grabbed me is this one:

Can I tell you the truth? I mean this isn't the TV news is it? Here's what I think the truth is: We are all addicts of fossil fuels in a state of denial. And like so many addicts about to face cold turkey, our leaders are now committing violent criems to get what little is left of what we're hooked on.

The Lit Major in me wants to analyze the sentences to dissect and determine how he tricked me; the Lit Major in me admires the movement of the essay. I wanted to laugh that he's making a joke, but as soon as the chuckle began, I realized he'd pulled a fast one on me and just maybe he's not joking. The human in me, the military chaplain in me, the pastor in me wants to weep that maybe he's on to something.