Kurt Vonnegut wrote about me!

“I not only pronounce those about to graduate as women and men. With all the powers vested in me, I pronounce them Clarks as well. Most of you know, I’m sure, that all white people named Clark are descended from inhabitants of the British Isles who were remarkable for being able to read and write.

A black person named Clark, of course, would be descended, most likely, from someone who was forced to work without pay or rights of any kind by a white person named Clark.

An interesting family—the Clarks. I realize that you graduates are all specialized in some way. But you have spent most of the past sixteen or more years learning to read and write.

People who can do those things well, as you can, are miracles and, in my opinion, entitle us to suspect that we may be civilized after all. It is terribly hard to learn to read and write. It takes simply forever. When we scold our schoolteachers about the low reading scores of their students, we pretend that it is the easiest thing in the world: to teach a person to read and write. Try it sometime, and you will discover that it is nearly impossible.

What good is being a Clark, now that we have computers and movies and television?

Clarking, a wholly human enterprise, is sacred. Machinery is not. Clarking is the most profound and effective form of meditation practiced on this planet, and far surpasses any dream experienced by a Hindu on a mountaintop. Why? Because Clarks, by reading well, can think the thoughts of the wisest and most interesting human minds throughout all history. When Clarks meditate, even if they themselves have only mediocre intellects, they do it with the thoughts of angels.

What could be more sacred than that?”

– Kurt Vonnegut, If This Isn’t Nice, What Is?: The Graduation Speeches and Other Words to Live By.

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I am a Clark. It is very exciting to read a famous author praising my family name. Especially as he includes a caveat for those those of us with ‘mediocre intellects.’

But more importantly Kurt is praising reading and writing.

And we Clarks don’t have a monopoly on that. In fact this Clark wants to join Kurt in encouraging everyone to do more Clarking.