The Day after Paul Newman Was Dead, He Was Twice as Dead

Tuesday, one of the more amazing people to populate the planet (at least in my lifetime) took his leave of us. Maurice Sendak, who was ridiculously famous for Where the Wild Things Are, but I most especially loved his In the Night Kitchen, died. He was and now he isn't. Sorry to be so brusque but it is what it is. When it's my turn you can repay the favor. Believe me I will not care and even if I should, there will be nothing I can do.

To luxuriate in all the Sendakness you can eat with a spoon, read this because it is so beautiful, it is so true that it hurts and you can feel the author's pain even through her punctuation. It is, quite simply, one of the reasons, as of when I found it, why I'm glad I can read. Maurice Sendak was another. And Meryl Streep makes reading Maurice Sendak magical just by listening. Did you hear what I mean?

I didn't even mention Chicken Soup and Rice which our children loved growing up and I read to them a bajillion times even as I grew old. I wanted you to have that link should you encounter someone today who is need of some (either reading or chicken soup and rice). You're never too old to have a happy childhood and I think, perhaps, Maurice Sendak very much did.

I have a very long list of people whom I have never met and if there's any justice in the world my name is on a lot of their lists as well. Somewhere on mine, I'm sure, was Maurice Sendak. Perhaps we could compare lists someday. Until then, I want you to have this quote from him for on the way because in three sentences he captures the essence of his greatest stories. "I cry a lot because I miss people. They die and I can't stop them. They leave me and I love them more."
-bill kenny