Dear Cyndy,

Thank you as always for your letter. Your pessimistic
prognosis for my latest legal escapade is helpful to me
for maintaining perspective. You write of "law and order"
as determinative of the outcome. I have long considered
"law and order" as a euphemism for fascism, which strikes me
as the natural destination of all government. Did it ever occur
to you that you might be corresponding with a crypto-anarchist?

At this juncture, it seems that the outcome, whatever it may
be, will make little difference to me, will assure neither my 
salvation nor the converse. I take some satisfaction in trying
to assess the controversy from the government's perspective,
and to consider what I would say and do, if I were their lawyer.
The circumstance that I could take pleasure in arguing for both
sides, reminds me of Shakespeare's enebriated porter, whose
depiction I interpret as a parody, perhaps unwitting, of Saint
Peter guarding the gates to Hell:

    Knock, knock! Who's there, in the other
    devil's name? Faith, here's an equivocator, that could
    swear in both the scales against either scale, who com-
    mitted treason enough for God's sake, yet could
    not equivocate to heaven. O, come in, equivocator. 
                                    (Macbeth II, 3)

Given that I am so enthusiastic a fan of dialectic,
Shakespeare disappoints me. I suspect is was the lawyer's
detachment from the existential anguish of his client that 
provoked Shakespeare's contempt, - Portia being the dazzling
exception which proves the rule. And yet, I can't but admire
how the lawyer distills the contents of the cauldron of human
contentiousness and suffering into compelling concepts and
inspiring ideals, albeit unavoidably remote from the problems
he purports to resolve, and not infrequently excerbating them
in the attempt.

I have from time to time considered, inasmuch as becoming a soldier
in the government's universal health care initiative is out of the
question, whether I might choose law as my profession in my next
incarnation - the present one seeming rapidly to be approaching
its end. My problem: that I would end up representing the destitute
and the despised, and would unavoidably become as impoverished as
my clients and despised, - even by them. In my imagination I then
pursue a career in business, which turns out similarly to be a
career in failure, because I could not escape being distracted
by the individualities of my employees, customers or associates,
whom a successful enterprise would require me to exploit.

Today, unexpectedly, the dilemma of social and economic survival 
in my next incarnation resolved itself: Not a physician, not a lawyer,
not a banker, broker or businessman, and never, no never, a
"professor" of philosophy. In my next incarnation I will become
a computer engineer. Last Sunday Klemens and I took a day's trip
to Nantucket to check on the integrity of the unfinished house.
We left Hyannis on the 9:15 a.m. boat, found the house secure as
Margaret and I had left it on December 1. Mindful of complying with
Mr. Ciarmataro's Draconian prohibition, we made no use of the
unlawfully installed plumbing facilities before summoning a taxi
to take us back into town for the 5:30 p.m. boat. Four weeks from now,
I plan to go again, just for one day, to make sure the house is intact. 
It had always been my intention, once the house was finished and would
presumably be vacant many months of the year, to install a computer
based video surveillance system with which we could monitor the premises
from Belmont, using either the Internet or a direct telephone connection.
Since until the controversy is resolved one way or another, we won't
be able to stay in the house, I thought the time to install the
surveillance system had come. That, of course is much easier said
than done; but the prospect of the effort is so satisfying, that my
career choice for my next incarnation seems certain beyond a doubt.

I had in mind regaling you with a technical description of the
computer system I envision, and with a disquisition on the difference
between technology and "pure" science. But you will forgive - or thank -
me for dispensing with both. I need to get on with my programming in
order not to suffocate in my own verbiage,

Stay well and give my regards to Ned.

Jochen