Posthumous Letter to KVJ

 

Hello Kurt, you probably don’t remember me but we met at a high school somewhere in Indianapolis.  I was the teenager with a copy of Cat’s Cradle and a pen trying to get you to autograph it.  There was no Security present so my friends and I simply ambushed you at the back stage door.  You were smoking a cigarette (nothing you'd blink your eye at inside a building in the mid-80’s).  I wish I’d made a better impression.  You looked irritated.  I understand that now.  The cult of celebrity is a mixed blessing at best, a perpetual curse at worst.  

I remember it was a cold and wet evening in late Fall.  We drove up from Mitchell, Indiana.  The only thing I can still remember about your talk these 36 years later is that you were mad as hell at Ronald Reagan and his bombing of Libya.  At the time I was a Reagan fanboy and your words left me conflicted.  I understand it better now.  My “big brain” has processed quite a bit more information since then and I’ve had opportunity to travel the globe learning some humility and maybe even grace.  Blessings to you wherever you are [3 words here].

Aaron

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