Dear Anne,

Thank you for your letter. You have indicated that you would like our 
correspondence to continue. So would I. There is so much to write about,
to describe, to contemplate, that you must determine not only the topic, 
but also the dimensions and the depth to which we should explore it.
For example, Chapter Seven, which you have read, might be expanded into
a discussion of ethics, of society, solitude and the retreat into nature. 

As you can imagine, next Thursday's arguments have been surfacing - 
and submerging in my thoughts like offshore dolphins. In the course of years 
I've concluded that there is no "free will", that we are unable to "will" 
our actions, that what we do not less than what we think emerges mysteriously 
from the unconscious workings of the mind; this morning it occurred to me 
that "prejudice" also is an unavoidable and inescapable characteristic 
not only of my own judgment but also of the Court's.

Don't worry, never never would I ever mouthe the word "prejudice" in a 
courtroom. I understand, respect and honor the unrebuttable presumption that 
all adjudication from the plumbing inspector's order to the ruling of the
Supreme Judicial Court is born in consequence of an immaculate conception
of truth - and nothing but the truth - so help us God.

Yet I cannot escape the question whether the Plumbing Board's and the
Superior Court's refusal to acknowledge that first sentence of
85 Mass App Ct 1116: "The judgment is reversed." and their insistence
that the Hearing mandated by that decision, rather than "a hearing to determine 
whether the order that the plumbing must be completely removed" is in fact an 
"Appeal from an Inspectors Decision  pursuant to G.L. 142", with the consequent
reversal of the burden of proof; whether this premise should not disqualify 
their rulings from further consideration. Shouldn't the same disqualification 
flow from the Plumbing Board's refusal to provide an unexpurgated recording 
of the proceedings?

At this juncture, I'm just thinking. What words - what ideas will, to
quote ancient Homer, "escape the barriers of (my) teeth" ( which are almost
all gone ) next Thursday morning, is known only to Zeus, - and he won't tell.

Best wishes to Dan and to yourself.

Jochen