Look Me Over And Think What You Will

I just finished Kurt Vonnegut’s Hocus Pocus and the book is little more than a deft depiction of a humanity fraught with violence, greed, racism, sexism, classism, materialism, prison industrial complexes, and bell towers.

Vonnegut is wonderful at providing perspective on our species. Having read a bit of him before I wasn’t surprised but at the end of the book…in so few words, merely a few sentences, he redeems, yes redeems (I know it is a strong word) humanity.

Upon meeting his 23 year old illegitimate son for the first time, his main character delivers this:

I felt wonderful, very happy to have him look me over and think what he would. I had seldom been happy to have my legitimate children look me over and think what they would…

And then:

How embarrassing to be human.

And lastly:

It could be, I suppose, because somewhere in the back of my mind I believed that there might really be a big book in which all things were written, and that I wanted some impressive proof that I could be compassionate recorded there.

I was crying at the dining room table thinking about my two young sons looking me over and thinking what they would. 

The world is nothing but a mirror.

Ok, maybe "redeem" is too strong a word. But close.