Saturday, May 30, 2015

Advice worth seeking

Back of the postcard, photo by Jill Krementz
Twelve years ago today Kurt Vonnegut sat down at his desk where he's written so many luminous verses before and wrote me a letter.

As a student living abroad in Australia I would frequently wander Sydney alone with a sketch pad and a pen - I filled pages and pages of poetry, observations, drawings and musings.  I was looking for something...I was looking for myself.  In many ways, I still am.  It was on one of the early days of my study abroad program that I wandered into an old Australian pub and sat down for a pint.  On the old wooden bar was a stack of coasters, the bartender slid one towards me before placing a frosty beer atop.  As I sipped the foamy brew, I looked down to see the words "seek the advice of everyone's advice who's worth having and then make the decision yourself" written on the coaster.   I immediately starting drafting a letter to Mr. Kurt Vonnegut in my mind.  He was the first person I thought about the advice worth having.  I drafted the letter over and over in my head and then finally in my notebook before transcribing it in a letter.  I introduced myself, my life, my thoughts, my feelings on his work (which had been very influential to me during my formative years) and then I sent the letter into the abyss not knowing if it would ever reach him.  I had researched his lawyer, agent and towns which he frequently mentioned in his more autobiographical stories.  And then I came across a PO Box in Long Island and something about that address stopped me in my tracks.  I envisioned him surrounded by hydrangeas like the photo his wife, Jill Krementz, had taken.  I put the letter in the outbound mail and wished it well.  A little over a week to the day, I received his reply.

I've read his advice countless times and each time I take something different from it.  Sometimes I agree, sometimes I don't.  But mostly I just add it to the encyclopedia of my life and refer to it whenever a certain kind of advice is needed.  And then I continue to make the decision myself.



No comments:

Post a Comment