Thank you! – Warden Todd Harm
Thank Yooooooooou!
Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
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Kurt Vonnegut Jr (1922-2007) was an American satirist whose outlook on life was profoundly shaped by one cataclysmic coincidence: at the very end of World War 2 he was interned in Dresden by the Nazis … at the precise moment the Allies bombed the city to smithereens. Emerging from the meat locker that served as his refuge, he undertook a lifelong career as a novelist committed to exploring the Big Questions of Life. An excerpt from one of his most popular books, Cat’s Cradle, elegantly summarises his unique take on things:
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God made mud.
God got lonesome.
So God said to some of the mud, “Sit up!”
“See all I’ve made,” said God, “the hills, the sea, the sky, the stars.”
And I was some of the mud that got to sit up and have a look around.
Lucky me, lucky mud.
I, mud, sat up and saw what a nice job God had done.
Nice going, God!
Nobody but You could have done it, God! I certainly couldn’t have.
I feel very unimportant compared to You.
The only way I can feel the least bit important is to think of all the mud that didn’t even get to sit up and look around.
I got so much, and most mud got so little.
Thank you for the honour!
Now mud lies down again and goes to sleep.
What memories for mud to have!
What interesting other kinds of sitting-up mud I met!
I loved everything I saw!
Good night.
The Last Rites of the Bokononist Faith from Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr
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I’ve reacquainted myself with Vonnegut’s work since completing the infamous ‘Barbenheimer’ movie double a month ago with my family; that is, we watched Greta Gerwig’s Barbie … and then Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer soon after. Both movies are quite existential – inviting you to critically re-examine your worldview – and I was particularly struck by the way Nolan challenged our mythologisation of Science to the point where humans think they are “above God” and in control of their existence.
“In control”, hey? How is that going for us? I do not need to list off to you the overwhelming list of challenges facing us as individuals, as families, as a nation, as a world to emphasise the point that we are not in control of very much of anything at present.
It has been ever thus, though.
Which is why our response should always be an “attitude of gratitude” – to remember that the things we often take for granted are the very things millions of souls around the world are praying for.
Later in Vonnegut’s novel, Cat’s Cradle, Newt, the main character, shares a very short tale he has written:
On the planet Veraxos, there was no crime greater than a lack of gratitude. The punishment for such a crime? To be ‘defenestrated’ – flung from the top window of the tallest of the skyscrapers covering every inch of the marvellous planet. All three of Gothrakar’s hearts momentarily skipped a beat as he was thrust into the void by his executioners … before he looked to the heavens and cried out his final words: “Thank yooooooooooooou!”
My prayer for our community is that we deliberately take the time to stop being “clever” … and/or “entitled” … and/or “overwhelmed” … and admire the grandiose love of the Creator that is manifest around us every single day.
Todd Harm