Dear Marion,

Thank you for your letter. Please accept my apologies
for troubling you with concerns which properly I should
have kept to myself. In the future, I'll try to do better.
Much of today, I've spent playing with my computer, on
which I have installed a new operating system, and a
program for editing soundtracks which will make it possible
to transfer the music on the many old 33 r.p.m. phonograph
records to CDs. Tomorrow, however, I shall stop toying with
my machines and inaugurate the New Year by cleaning house.
Once that's done, I will resume confiding my sorrows and
perplexities to my novel where they belong.  In the New
York Times I found an essay about William Lloyd Garrison
which gives another perspective on problems that arise
from the failure to synchronize ones thought with ones
contemporaries. It may interest you also. Here's the URL. 

My very best wishes to you for a pleasant weekend on the
Farm, as prelude to a happy and healthy New Year.

Jochen