July 4, 2020

Dear Nikola,

a) Thank you for your letter. If I interpret it correctly, it tells me that your state of mind has improved.

b) Although I'm always pleased to read or hear from you, please feel no obligation to call or to write.

c) The imperative to put my dwelling in order is intimately familiar. In my case, since I'm such a tightwad, the issue arises not because I have bought too much - , but because I develop transcendental, spiritual attachments to everything that I use and have used, and am reluctant to throw away what has become a part of me. Hence the three houses, in Virginia, on Nantucket and in Belmont have become storehouses, for what belonged not only to me, but to my deceased wife, to my parents, to my sister, to Klemens, Laura and my four grandchildren, and to my deceased cousin. Putting and keeping things in order has become a major challenge of my old age.

d) Putting things in order, what and how to discard, what, how and where to store our physical, intellectual and spiritual possessions, are topics you and I might - or might not - want to discuss.

e) I want very much that you should get and remain well. If the fates, (Schicksal, Moira) would heed me, our problems would disappear.

EJM