Dear Marion,

Thank you very much for your letter. If there's any
doubt in your mind, yes, then you should be laughing.
Surely laughing is better than weeping, than tearing
ones hair or donning sackcloth and sprinkling ashes
on ones head.

Your letter reminded me of a comment I forgot to make
about Margot's passionate dislike of references to or
quotations from "serious" literature, especially in the
context of her concern that you yourself should not lapse
into Yiddish. In Also Sprach Zarathustra, Nietzsche wrote
"Also sprach das Eisen zum Magneten: ich hasse dich am meisten,
weil du anziehst, aber nicht stark genug bist, an dich zu ziehen." 
I think your description of my Do-It-Yourself theology as
"jolly" is eminently appropriate, it's an essential correction
of the lugubrious Weltschmerz that is characteristic of all
theology that pretends to seriousness. We're obviously in
dire need of comic strip theology. Even Doonesbury is too
serious. Maybe something in the style of "Peanuts" would
finally to justice to the topic. Please remember also that
my theology is avowedly "Do-It-Yourself"; it doesn't cost
you anything, and you get what you pay for.

Having written that, I'll address, with a chuckle, your
question why, if Jesus, objectively cannot be divine,
subjectively Jesus cannot be other than divine. At its
simplest, it's a matter merely of definition. If one 
proceeds to define objective as worldly, secular,
and therefore non-divine, and if one defines the divine
as being subjective, and the subjective as being divine,
then the relationship reveals itself to be an identity,
and the purported analysis of an identity is, as you
astutely identified it, a joke. 

Next question: How can writing "truthfully" make life more
difficult? None of us has "the truth", but each of us 
nourishes illusions of truth. These illusions, which differ
from person to person, may be used as weapons with which we
hurt one another, and I think unnecessarily so.

Next question: I don't remember what I said about Margrit's
attitude toward me, but whatever it was, don't take it seriously.
Consider it a joke. About Margrit's feelings, she would know best,
and would give you the most reliable answer. How I might perceive
these feelings is beside the point.

I think we are in agreement that laughter is good for the soul, -
assuming that there is such a thing.

Jochen