LeRoy,

Here’s what I think about living in the past. We always have lived in the past, with memories both good and bad, even when we were very active in our present, and thinking, planning our future.

But now we have a lot of time on our hands and, I don’t know about you, LeRoy, but I feel a certain sense of lack of purpose. We were both so active in our careers, though differently, when we “retire” I think it is natural to spend some thoughtful time about our lives. You’ve done it in your essays, I’ve done it in my short stories and essays. I see no harm in it and, for that matter, to chronicle ones past is what many great writers, politicians and adventurers have done. I don’t consider myself in a class with greatness, but I think I get a B+ for how I’ve lived my life…and it is certainly different than most. My Boston side of the family were patrons of the arts, knew Emerson, William James, Hawthorne, famous business people, and wrote about their lives in a Harvard collection known as “The Ward Papers.”

On another tack, the weather here now is getting hot. When it gets hot enough, usually in June, the lake evaporates and then at night, when it cools, we get violent, brilliant thunderstorms. The next day it is dry and cooler. The rains are preceded by singing cicadas, a gong-like noise, continuous during the day. The Mexicans call them “rain birds.”

The rain birds are singing outside my office. It is not clear if they predict the rain or the heat brings them out, but it is a nice noise.

Be good…..I’ve had great pleasure reading your essays, a kind of chronicle of your life, and sometimes I write a shortstory I like, detailing something in mine. I think we’re doing the right things….and I am always amused and amazed at your William Land pogroms. Wonderful stuff, inciting the neighbors to peaceful violence.

Don