Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Not a resolution—just a thought

I'm not much for New Year's resolutions, and I am always cross with people who decide to take up exercising and clog up my gym for a couple of months so that I have to arrive at spin half an hour early to get a bike. But I'm not above taking a minute for a little contemplation and mental re-set. A quote from Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater sums it up for me:
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."

Because if you can do that, doesn't everything else that really matters just fall into place? Here's hoping.

5 comments:

Libby said...

I'll raise my glass to that, Cindy!

Happy New Year, my friend.

hqm said...

I'll second that! Thanks for stopping by my blog...looking forward to catching up with yours!
Happy New Year!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your good wishes. I've enjoyed checking out your blog - it's always nice to find another Nicole Krauss fan. My husband is using History of Love in a course he's teaching right now. Such a wonderful book and the ending is such a shock. (At least it was for me.) Have you read anything by Donna Tart? Her first book, The Secret History, might interest you. Excellent book.

My sister is a PhD candidate at UCB and we've visited her a few times; you are truly lucky to live there.

Monica said...

Happy new year!

Cindy said...

I loved The Secret History!! And reading about Donna Tart's life is almost as interesting.

So much good stuff to read out there!