Dear Cyndy,

Thank you for your letter, for your openness and tolerance for
my ideas. Between spurts of shoveling - and snowblowing, I've
been making incremental additions to the novel. Like myself,
Charlotte is exhausted by the unholy turmoil at Aletheia
University; she finds distraction and solace by house cleaning
for Jonathan and Joachim. She wishes under no circumstances to
return to the sensitivity training offered and demanded by
Aletheia. She is about to be interrupted in her domestic chores
by a visit from an admirer of hers, Moritz Schwiegel, the idealistic
"public interest" lawyer who is ostensibly looking for Mengs with
whom he wishes to discuss his theories about the genesis of social
consciousness and behavior. Since Mengs is not at home, Charlotte
and Moritz review and try to interpret  what goes on at Aletheia. 
Charlotte's respite from her academic curriculum lasts for only a few 
days. Soon she will be importuned, challenged and threatened by 
Aletheia officials for having violated her educational contract. 
The beginning of a new cycle of dramatic confrontations ...

Meanwhile I've spent time looking at chapters in Vier Freunde IV,
reading them as if they had been written by a stranger, fascinated
by the power and persuasiveness of ideas the exposition of which
I seem to have entirely forgotten. As usual, I'm much pleased with
myself.

I've started to try to make myself proficient in the koine of the 
Bible. I started with Genesis 32 in the Septuagint, proceeded
to Matthew 26-27 and John 18-19, the latter texts I know by
heart, having listened innumerable times to the Bach Passions in 
which they are quoted. I retrieve these texts from the Internet,
copy them into my computer and print them in very large type, so
that they are easily legible. To try to familiarize myself with
the Greek, I read them over and over again. Perhaps ultimately
I'll be reciting them from memory. I'm also spending time on the
Vulgate; perhaps my Latin will improve as well. In addition, I've 
started reviewing Plato's Apology which I read many years ago in 
college. I have pipe-dreams of assimilating much of the classical 
literature for which I haven't had time: more, much more Plato, 
Aristotle, Aeschylus, Sophocles ... obviously the days are too short 
and too few, but I can't think of a better way of spending these 
last few months or years than in learning to read ...

Jochen