Dear Mr. Zander,

Thank you very much for the post-concert party, obviously preferable by far
to a gathering in a restaurant from which I would most likely have been
excluded, if not on account of my age, then on account of my temperament.
It was both an honor and a pleasure to be introduced to you.

After I came home last evening I waited in the kitchen for the return of
Herr und Frau Basili, who as you know are our celebrated cellist Cristina's
parents and came to Boston for a few days for a transient reunion with their
far-traveling daughter. While waiting, I started to listen to the CD of 
Bruckner, Symphony No. 5, which you gave me, and began also my reading of 
"The Art of Possibility". I report to you my preliminary impressions and 
thoughts, if only because I've made it a habit to write "in real time", 
before what's on my mind has begun to fade, a process that requires only 
an uncomfortably short period of time in my 86 1/2 year old brain. 
My thoughts are (always) temporary; I often revise them, and I may write
you a second letter to recant.

My preliminary conclusion about "The Art of Possibility" notes that you've
written about the Art rather than the Science of Possibility. The Science
of Possibility is mathematical statistics which leaves me unpersuaded. The
Art of Possibility addresses the ambiguity and uncertainty of our 
interpretations of what we experience from day to day. I very much agree
with what I understand you to say. I have expostulated time and again that
my world is a representation (Vorstellung) which is subject to revision;
and that regular revision of my understanding is necessary and can be very 
productive.

Underlying, supporting and buttressing the Art of Possibility, as I understand
you, is your optimism, your belief that the consequences of exercising the Art 
of Possibility is invariably beneficial, productive and desirable. It is at
this juncture that our perspectives diverge: you share with Leibniz the view
that we live in the best of all possible worlds. My experience suggests:
"Wir müssen durch viel Trübsal in das Reich Gottes eingehen." (BWV 146)
(Apostelgeschichte 14:22) and that the Art of Possibility while it may
issue in great good fortune, may also be the gateway to unhappiness and
despair.

Permit me respectfully to note an apparent contradiction in your two gifts. 
The Art of Possibility promises happiness; but Bruckner's 5th Symphony, like
his other compositions, was in his lifetime, if I understand correctly, 
a work emblematic not of the Art of Possibility but of disappointment 
if not of downright failure to achieve his ambitions. I'm much taken with 
the music that I hear on the CD. I like the melody and the harmony. If I
learned it by heart, it could, like all the other music I have assimilated, 
become part of my experience.

Permit me once more to thank you for your efforts on behalf of Nathaniel.

Sincerely yours
Jochen Meyer