Dear Marion,

Thank you for your letters. I hope your Easter weekend
on the farm fulfilled your expectations, - and perhaps
more. Thank you for your sympathetic and generous retrospective
description of Margrit, and thank you also for your thoughtful
reflections on my present state of mind. I have taken your
advice; I have permitted myself to be distracted, though
not quite as you suggested: I haven't watched Rebekah's
and her teammates' rowing, nor movies, or have I tried to
prepare baked Alaska. I've distracted myself by assembling
a computer, just as when I was a child in Konnarock, I
entertained myself by dissecting and repairing electrical
appliances and radios. Specifically, I have been trying
to adapt to my own purposes the computer which Margrit
had arranged to have set up in her apartment in Detroit.
She wanted to use it for nothing more than e-mail, and
what she had acquired was clearly a second hand machine
with various non-functioning components. Both of the
optical drives (CD-DVD players) were defective, as was
the sound card. Now that these have been replaced, the
machine functions quite nicely; it is much faster than
the computer with which I have contented myself for years.
All that remains is to reconcile the computer with my
printer. As of tonight I haven't been able to allay their
mutual hostility. Maybe tomorrow I'll succeed.

My other distraction has been the effort, more determined
than heretofore, to begin to put this large house in order.
I've made a start, and some progress, but there's so much
to do, that I probably will never finish. Finally, and
ultimately perhaps the most consequential distrction is
the investment challenge. The three month treasury bills
have come due, and the money demands to be reinvested.
It's come to my attention that although yields on short term
bonds are still very low, the stocks of various respectable
companies pay very substantial dividends. For example,
CenturyLink pays 8.15%, AT&T 6.47%, Pepco 6.25%, Progress 
Energy 6.24%, Verizon 6.20%. It seems too good to be true,
and perhaps it is; but these are issues I need to think
about. In theory a stock that isn't excessively vulnerable
to the economy should be a hedge against inflation: as the
dollar loses value, the cash flow of such companies should
increase, as might their dividends and their net asset values.
Something for me to consider. To act responsibly, will
require more time and effort than I have been devoting to
the subject. I'll try to rise to the occasion.

As if our lives were not complicated enough, we have decided
that we should have a memorial service for Margrit in Konnarock,
and since my grandchildren are accomplished musicians and I
myself at least entertain the most awkward of relationships
to organized religion, we have decided to have a memorial
concert, each of the children giving a solo performance of
his or her favorite music. Rebekah mentioned she was thinking
of playing the easiest of the Bach partitas for unaccompanied
violin, Leah will probably play the solo from a Mozart horn
concerto, Benjamin, a movement from the Haydn trumpet concerto.
Nathaniel is too much of a virtuoso to be predictable.  I'll
wash the dishes and make the beds. The date is July 14.
Of course _all_ of Margrit's friends are invited, including
you, an invitation which reminds me a poem by Schiller:

Denn Bank an Bank gedränget sitzen,
Es brechen fast der Bühne Stützen,
Herbeigeströmt von fern und nah,
Der Griechen Völker wartend da,
Dumpfbrausend wie des Meeres Wogen;
Von Menschen wimmelnd, wächst der Bau
In weiter stets geschweiftem Bogen
Hinauf bis in des Himmels Blau.

Wer zählt die Völker, nennt die Namen,
Die gastlich hier zusammenkamen?
Von Theseus' Stadt, von Aulis' Strand,
Von Phokis, vom Spartanerland,
Von Asiens entlegener Küste,
Von allen Inseln kamen sie
Und horchen von dem Schaugerüste
Des Chores grosser Melodie, 

If even half of them show up, the logistics
of accommodating them boggle the mind and make
me feel helpless.

Jochen