![thedailywhat:
Letter Of Note of the Day: After her husband passed away in 1989, mother-of-three Marianne — then 36 years old — wrote a letter to Kurt Vonnegut to thank him “for his books and his compassion.”
She didn’t expect a reply — but got one anyway.
“I have always wanted to share his kind words,” she says. “It meant, and still means, so much to me.”
Transcript below:
It can’t be said often enough, “It is the woman who pays.” The miracle is that so many can and do somehow. I was in love (still am) with a widow with four kids (two not her own). She somehow raised them all on a teeny weeny salary. I told her one time, “I worry about women.” She said, “Don’t.”
[letters.]](http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_luo7450V2o1qzpwi0o1_250.jpg)
Even so, the plight of 20-somethings is distinct. In America, their anger can seem grounded in a sense of betrayal. Having been taught a social arithmetic since childhood that education plus diligence equals fulfillment, they are now confronted with a grim subtraction. Education has all too often left them crushed by the debt of student loans, and diligence is irrelevant in a jobless market. People in their 20s take the weight of unemployment rates that can be double the national average. Not only are their present prospects bleak - management training in fast food, anyone? — but they can look forward, in their 30s, if and when the recovery comes, to being passed over by junior siblings. Youth interrupted, adulthood postponed, careers that never materialized, disappointment as a way of life. A bottomless abyss of missed opportunity yawns at the feet of an entire American generation.
— James Carroll, “Youth Pushed to the Edge”
