R.I.P. J.D.

We officially mourn the passing of J.D. Salinger, one of my favorite authors, recluse and icon.

I always appreciated his statement of loneliness and longing made so clear in The Catcher In The Rye.  This, my favorite passage from said book, gives both its' title and its' meaning, about the unfettered joy and simplicity of childhood and why we wish it not to pass.

"Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all.  Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around--nobody big, I mean--except me.  And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff.  What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff--I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them.  That's all I'd do all day.  I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all."

Salut, J.D.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JD_Salinger