Kurt Vonnegut on Finding the MIRACULOUS in the MUNDANE

Amid all the loneliness and despair that now surround us, legendary and prolific author Kurt Vonnegut offers some wise and brilliant advice on why we should go outside into the world to seek out human connections to discover the magic in the seemingly mundane aspects of life.
Please support the channel:
Patreon: / feverandfret
Kurt Vonnegut's 2004 lecture where he retells his envelope story: • Kurt Vonnegut Lecture
The excerpt from Vonnegut's interview with Harper's: theody.net/vonnegut.html
#loneliness #miraculous #humanconnection

[@tomsortore8301]

I would love to have met this amazing man!! Drove a motorcycle from Baltimore to Alaska in 1980. With a tent and some jack Daniel's and some kurt vonnegut. Pure bliss

[@feverandfret]

That sounds like one amazing trip. I can imagine you learned so much from that.

[@kelleemerson9510]

Sounds to me like he was awakened to gratitude and you too can do that.

[@katec7033]

Check out Peter Reed’s book called Kurt Vonnegut jr. the first book on Vonnegut’s work. I was lucky enough to know Peter Reed and his wife (family friends) they did say how kind he was. His “religion” was Humanist.

[@katec7033]

They were good friends of Vonnegut.

[@liberty-matrix]

"The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways , but narrower viewpoints. We spend more but have less, we buy more but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge but less judgment, more experts yet more problems, more medicine but less wellness." ~George Carlin

[@feverandfret]

Amazing quote. I'd love to use it in future vid. Thank you.

[@MrGriff305]

"That's mostly bullshit from a guy who gets attention being negative and cynical." ~Me

[@thechapelperilous]

“One of the more embarrassing items [attributed to me] making the internet/e-mail rounds is a sappy load of shit called “The Paradox of our time.” The main problem I have with it is that as true as some of the expressed sentiments may be, who really gives a shit? Certainly not me. I figured out years ago that the human species is totally fucked and has been for a long time. I also know that the sick, media-consumer culture in America continues to make this so-called problem worse. But the trick, folks, is not to give a fuck. Like me. I really don’t care. I stopped worrying about all this temporal bullshit a long time ago. It’s meaningless. (See the preface of “Brain Droppings (1997).”) Another problem I have with “Paradox” is that the ideas are all expressed in a sort of pseudo-spiritual, New-Age-y, “Gee-whiz-can’t-we-do-better-than-this” tone of voice. It’s not only bad prose and poetry, it’s weak philosophy. I hope I never sound like that." George Carlin.

[@alexanderwindh4830]

Wow. Yes

[@BlueBeeMCMLXI]

You go so far for this: The people YOU meet ARE your life.

[@TheCompleteGuitarist]

We are so cocooned in the security of our daily rhythms. Car doors and windscreens block the noise and the experience of nature, daily lives and working routines prevent us from enjoying family and friends and now we stick buds in our ears as if to pretend that the songs and sounds have meaning when all we are doing is hiding and filtering out what we think of as unwanted attention when in fact that is what denies us joy. The windscreen (shield) replaced by a digital screen and each genearation thinks its cooler than the last by being early adopters of whatever new toy comes along when all they are doing is adding another layer of disconnect from the world. We don't even know what we're supposed to eat any longer.

[@daniel_moretti]

Such an excellent and insightful video! We spend so much time looking for the meaning of life, ignoring that it is right in front of us, right before our eyes. Thank you for that oh so valuable reminder!!

[@darrenwendroff3441]

This is an incredible presentation of Vonnegut's work. I'm going to read him more in the next few months because of your video. Excellent job my friend, look forward to more of your work.

[@feverandfret]

Thanks so much for the kind words!

[@KameaMedia]

He really did buy one Manilla envelope at a time. I witnessed it at the Post Office when he was in Northampton, -teaching at Smith College for a semester some years back. He held it between thumb and forefinger as he walked up Main Street.

[@simonagree4070]

Vonnegut had to say these things to reassure himself because, as an attempted suicide, he was intimately acquainted with despair. Let's get the full picture.

[@Scott-sx1bf]

Fwiw, I’d rather hear about the world from someone who traveled it than from someone who read about it.

[@simonagree4070]

If anybody else, like Richard DeLaurell who appears to have deleted his comment, is doubtful about my reference to Vonnegut as an "attempted suicide", KV brings the matter up in his book, Fates Worse Than Death, page 181. It's also in the Encyclopedia Britannica. Just clarifiyin'.

[@TheCompleteGuitarist]

I cant speak for all men but knowing how I feel about suicide I would have to say that it crosses the minds of most men when they hit the bottom or skirt those depths. I have never felt compelled but I can't deny that it has crossed my mind a lot through my life.

[@jonathanbuyno9461]

I am not a social creature. I do not belong to this world.

[@flow963]

Excellent! Lord, that Kurt and his wit were still here to nourish us 🙏

[@wildernesshermit]

Very nice. Many thanks.

[@neilsmall1487]

...read his book, Slaughter House Five. His war experience was a cosmic 2 x 4...

[@rawbinmo]

Love this.

[@justaman33]

Thank you. Cheers

[@bentrider]

BRILLIANT!!!😊

[@feverandfret]

Thank you!

[@jonber9411]

I am also in love with every stranger i meet. This has saved my life. I have no other aspiration.

[@feverandfret]

That's a beautiful way to put it...

[@malcolmwatt7386]

Okay. So why did Vonnegut put on this big show out here in BC? When I saw him in Nanaimo Hospital I just stared at him with nothing to say. There he was after having been reported dead and his younger self (an actor) making appearances at Hudsons Bay Mall in Victoria and influencing the small theater group I had established in Victoria. That isn't mundane, that's cruel.

[@StateoftheMatrix]

An opportunity to experience life: "... and got to meet a cop and tell him about it."

[@jiggersotoole7823]

Happiness is an empty house. (it means you have to out to get things) *preferably on foot.

[@stevierayripple]

Most people think they "need" SO much meaning in their life,,, they don't .....

[@artrecluse]

There is no meaning, to anything. If only humans could accept that, like other animals already do.

[@stevierayripple]

@@artrecluse Well, there is some meaning, like Eating, Shitting and procreation

[@artrecluse]

@@stevierayripple That's not a meaning. Life just is. There is no meaning to any of it. We are born, and we die. We didn't exist for billions of years before we were born, and we won't exist for more billions of years after we die. We are nothing.

[@Allen-eq5uf]

I need people……to serve me.

[@rustyshimstock8653]

K.V. Indianapolis's favorite son.

[@ericolander8755]

Sure socializing the malady we are addicted to and the lonely disconnectedness withdrawl symptoms.

[@conniewhall3109]

Butt, if something doesn't smell right? Or smells rotten? "Better OUT than IN.", sez Shrek. Some of the best Self Comforting hax: 1) Belching. Humorous from 3 years old. 2) Farting. Humorous from 3 years & 1 day old. (Gotta give the Belching thing a full day to sink in.) 3) Picking one's nose. We are born with this talent. 4) Picking one's own seat. A must have duty when one goes out in public. You know, like the movie. Just saying. =^..^=

[@mynameisnobody3931]

Idk id like to make my social interaction smaller. I do however also experience that it makes me happy and others happy as well by "farting around" and having random interactions with random people. But to be caught in some special culture in a workplace and having to have to be dependent on interacting with people you don't like is such a drag. I know you can actually get to like people, but still when you're caught in some game by some smuck at the workplace can be so life drenching

[@feverandfret]

I get that. Workplaces can be challenging with all the weird power dynamics and buttkissery going on. I will say though that I met a few of my dearest, and most enduring friends while working menial jobs years ago.

[@ZER0--]

Thing is if you spend your life farting around then you tend to have few friends. People don't like people who don't have jobs or do normal.

[@degalan2656]

The problem is, we don’t know why we are here. It is a nonsensical question. It’s fun to think about an answer. But it will amount to nothing. Question the question… in all its contradictory glory…

[@coldpotatoes2556]

Smile a passers by😂....not in my suburb buddy.

[@haraldtheyounger5504]

Don't tell the Climate Change people we're "here to fart around".

[@robertjsmith]

It’s the “farts” that are causing global warming.

[@jiggersotoole7823]

That makes zero sense.

[@haraldtheyounger5504]

@@jiggersotoole7823 Makes perfect sense if you understand the context.

[@jiggersotoole7823]

@@haraldtheyounger5504 Elaborate

[@haraldtheyounger5504]

@@jiggersotoole7823 What does the heading on the thumbnail say? "We are here to fart around". What does the Climate Change people claim is causing Climate Change? Put it all together, methane is part of the serious danger to this planet and ourselves in their erroneous belief.

[@kevincooper8666]

Sounds like the saddest mf I've ever heard of making all those excuses just to get away from his wife

[@benhulme2863]

That’s because we are expendable fart.

[@davidkirkwood6063]

One of my favorite things to do! Fart around!😁

[@feverandfret]

Right? Vonnegut is such a great source of wit and wisdom..

[@MejganZia]

Sure if you sit around for the world to change, you'll turn into a skeleton in your chair. So go out and play.

[@feverandfret]

Well said…

[@user-yv7oi1be8h]

One friend who sends me daily bible verse to me till this day... I have one One girl friend who refused expensive gifts from me for being poor... I had one in the past. just find one true friend and one true woman... that is all a man needs to be honest.