See the cat? See the cradle?

"For maybe a hundred thousand years or more grownups have been waving tangles of string in their children"s faces... no wonder kids grow up crazy. A cat's cradle is nothing but a bunch of X's between somebody's hands, and little kids look and look and look at all those X's, but there's no damn cat, and no damn cradle.

...Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle

I just arrived in San francisco this afternoon. During my flight I was able to read Kurt Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle". Overall I have to say I liked the book; it left me pleasantly surprised at times how eloquent Vonnegut captures the human condition... the more I read, the more I like. In the book Vonnegut introduces the religion of Bokononism. Bokonon, its founder, teaches us that the universe arranges itself into two entities, the karass and the granfalloon. The karass is a loose connection of friends that, without knowing it, do God's work. A granfalloon is a false organization, one that serves no true purpose except to make false associations.

...there is a lot more about bokononism out there than what I am willing to put into writing. I suggest wikipedia for a better definition than I offer...



Anyway, what really touched me and what I wanted to share from this book are the last rites given to a Bokononist.

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 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 honor!
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.
I will go to heaven now.
I can hardly wait to find out for certain what my wampeter was...
And who was in my karass...
And all the good things our karass did for you.
Amen.