Dear Marion,

Happy Birthday, albeit belatedly, by two days. Thank you for letting
me share, however vicariously and tangentially, your vacation in France.
Like yourself, I admire what I know of France, its history and its
language. I would like to think that if I would only spend a few
days doing nothing else, I could read French fluently; but the
only ultimately satisfactory relationship to the language would
be the ability to write, to express myself in French, an ambition
so remote from reality that I'm embarrassed even to mention it.
Rightly or wrongly, I feel no need to travel to France. If I had
the energy and were willing to take the time, I could immerse myself
in French literature and French journalism at the desk and at the
computer at which I am sitting even now, writing to you. It's on
my agenda, but with a priority not high enough to bring it about.

As you may have inferred from comments in prior letters, I spent
much of July preparing the documents required for my appeal to the
Massachusetts Appeals Court, or - if they will accept the case,
to the Supreme Judicial Court. My argument seems to me logically
quite adequate; but I understand well that the criteria for
adjudication are meta-logical. The formal arguments are but 
a facade behind which undefined social and psychological forces
operate to determine the outcome. The odds are not in my favor;
historically, only one of six cases is reversed on appeal.  However,
the satisfaction that I derive from the legal confrontation is not
contingent on "victory".  As is true in life more generally,
it is not the end, but the process that gives meaning to the effort.
In some respects, I'm less afraid of losing the case than of winning it.

Ich sehe den Bäumen die Stürme an,
die aus laugewordenen Tagen
an meine ängstlichen Fenster schlagen,
und höre die Fernen Dinge sagen,
die ich nicht ohne Freund ertragen,
nicht ohne Schwester lieben kann.

Da geht der Sturm, ein Umgestalter,
geht durch den Wald und durch die Zeit,
und alles ist wie ohne Alter:
die Landschaft, wie ein Vers im Psalter,
ist Ernst und Wucht und Ewigkeit.

Wie ist das klein, womit wir ringen,
was mit uns ringt, wie ist das groß;
ließen wir, ähnlicher den Dingen,
uns so vom großen Sturm bezwingen, -
wir würden weit und namenlos.

Was wir besiegen, ist das Kleine,
und der Erfolg selbst macht uns klein.
Das Ewige und Ungemeine
will nicht von uns gebogen sein.
Das ist der Engel, der den Ringern
des Alten Testaments erschien:
wenn seiner Widersacher Sehnen
im Kampfe sich metallen dehnen,
fühlt er sie unter seinen Fingern
wie Saiten tiefer Melodien.

Wen dieser Engel überwand,
welcher so oft auf Kampf verzichtet,
der geht gerecht und aufgerichtet
und groß aus jener harten Hand,
die sich, wie formend, an ihn schmiegte.
Die Siege laden ihn nicht ein.
Sein Wachstum ist: der Tiefbesiegte
von immer Größerem zu sein.

Rainer Maria Rilke, 21.1.1901, Berlin-Schmargendorf 

Something to think about, and perhaps to keep in mind.

I have finished the composition of the legal papers.
I'm waiting now for the record in the case to be "assembled"
by the clerk of the lower court. The notice of appeal
was filed June 1, - obviously the clerk is in no hurry,
but neither am I. Once the record is assembled,
I pay a fee or three hundred dollars, - I then have forty
days to file my brief, - but since it's even now complete,
I will probably submit it within a few days after the case is
"docketed" in the Appeals Court. The opposing parties then
have thirty days to file a reply, and from the time of their
reply, I have another 2 weeks to file a rebuttal. Thereafter
the case is scheduled for argument, and some weeks or months
later the court issues its verdict. Usually this verdict is
simply an affirmation of the judgment in the court below.
I will also file an application for "direct review" by the
Supreme Judicial Court, which would be expected to take the
appeal more seriously. If my application is approved, the
probability of reversal rises from 16 to 40 percent. The
documents I have drafted are all of them in computer files,
and it would require no effort to attach them to one of my
e-mails to you. However I don't advise it. The Brief and the
motions are technical and lengthy, some 35 or 40 single spaced
typed pages, - and unless you have a particular interest in
legal matters, you would probably find them tedious and 
annoying as soon as you started to read them.

Before you left for France, you sent me a list of ten
questions that you suggested I ask you about yourself.
Thank you for your answer to the first question.
The second question you formulated was: "How did academe
suit you, when you became a biology faculty person?"
If you feel like commenting, please do, but don't consider
yourself obligated. Of interest to me more than a formally
scheduled biographical review, are the thoughts and
feelings presently on your mind, - "in real time."

In this context, I want to respond to your comments on
the contemporary political situation. It shouldn't be
necessary for me to emphasize that I admire Obama's
intelligence and competence, his humanity and his good will, -
a relief after the preceding eight years, - but  given the
multiplicity and complexity and expense of modern medical
diagnostic and therapeutic techniques, economic reality
makes rationing in some form or other unavoidable. And
rationing - of medical services or of anything else, -
is a constraint that the American public is not prepared
to accept. All this, of course, is of only marginal interest
to me, since I am the most reluctant of consumers of
"health care", and my days as a "provider" are almost over.

I hope you are well and happy.

Jochen