Dear Marion,

Thank you for your two letters. I'm reminded of the metaphor
of our lives as traversing a highwire and our theories as
poles of which we avail ourselves to maintain our balance,
patterns of thought which we must respect and with which we
must not tamper.  In the past I have voted as a favor to
Margaret, to Margrit, to Klemens to the grandchildren, -
all of whom believe that voting is an essential civic activity,
much as for years I went to church to please my parents. Now,
I think, it's you for whose sake I should go to vote. That's
the appropriate conclusion of our discussion.

Your pointillistic interpretation of the meaning of voting is
valuable to me. The dictionary's definition of suffrage:
_
suffrage (plural suffrages)
_
_  1. The right or chance to vote, express an opinion,
_     or participate in a decision.
_  2. A kind of prayer.
_  3. A vote in deciding a particular question.

corroborates my hypothesis that the electoral process can best
be rationalized as religious ceremony. The individual's
satisfaction of melding his or her identity with that of a
hundred million others reminds me of the mysticism of Spinoza
and of Johannes Scheffler, and especially of Hoelderlin's
wonderful paen to pantheism in his novel Hyperion:

Eines zu sein mit Allem, das ist Leben der Gottheit,
das ist der Himmel des Menschen.

Eines zu sein mit Allem, was lebt, in seliger Selbstvergessenheit
wiederzukehren ins All der Natur, das ist der Gipfel der Gedanken
und Freuden, das ist die heilige Bergeshoehe, der Ort der
ewigen Ruhe, wo der Mittag seine Schwuele und der Donner seine
Stimme verliert und das kochende Meer der Woge des Kornfelds gleicht.

Eines zu sein mit Allem, was lebt! Mit diesem Worte legt die Tugend
den zuernenden Harnisch, der Geist des Menschen den Zepter
weg, und alle Gedanken schwinden vor dem Bilde der ewigeinigen
Welt, wie die Regeln des ringenden Kuenstlers vor seiner Urania,
und das eherne Schicksal entsagt der Herrschaft, und aus dem Bunde
der Wesen schwindet der Tod, und Unzertrennlichkeit und ewige
Jugend beseliget, verschoenert die Welt.

Auf dieser Hoehe steh ich oft, mein Bellarmin! Aber ein Moment
des Besinnens wirft mich herab. Ich denke nach und finde mich,
wie ich zuvor war, allein, mit allen Schmerzen der Sterblichkeit,
und meines Herzens Asyl, die ewigeinige Welt, ist hin; die Natur
verschliesst die Arme, und ich stehe, wie ein Fremdling,
vor ihr, und verstehe sie nicht.  Hoelderlin - Hyperion

Please let me know if you wish a translation, or for that matter,
additional exegesis.

Your question: "By the way, what do you mean exactly when
you say that Margrit rejected you?" has a clintonesque answer:
depends on what the meaning of "is" is. Depends on what one means
by "reject", a question the best answer to which is inductive,
a compilation of what Margrit wrote, and said - and did - to me,
in conjunction with what she said about me to others, including
yourself. To be inconsistent in ones words, to be inconsistent in
ones actions, is the essence of being human. A useful perspective
would be the converse, to ask in what respects, to what degree
Margrit "accepted" me. All this against the background of the
wide spectrum of our respective needs, on the one hand to be close,
and on the other hand to be separate and independent: to be loved
by one person or to be integrated into a "community" of one hundred
million others.

Jochen