Hello and welcome to a slight collection of stuff that either a) amuses me or b) intrigues me. I found the two letters below in a book I bought in Madison, Virginia, USA, back in the summer of 1997. I have no idea what the mindset of the gentleman was or is. Anyone who has any idea is welcome to mail me.

The "Go Away" Letter

The "I Don't Need You People, I'm Going To Arizona" Letter

The current poem of choice. This selection by Gerard Manley Hopkins:

Spring

NOTHING is so beautiful as Spring--
When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;
Thrush's eggs look little low heavens, and thrush
Through the echoing timber does so rinse and sing
The ear, it stikes like lightnings to hear him sing
The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush
The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush
With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling

What is all this juice and all this joy?
A strain of the earth's sweet being in the beginning
In Eden garden.--Have, get, before it cloy,

Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning
Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy
Most, O maid's child, thy choice and worthy the winning.

January 20, 1992

Do I live by reality and strive for ideals? Or is it the other way around? I think it must be the former because the amount of frustration I feel must stem from the knowledge of the possibility of ideals or at least the possibility of incorporating ideals where they become reality. However, I don't want to lose ideals and I believe that if an ideal becomes reality it ceases being a[sic] ideal. All things can exist in only one of the realms. This is a personal view in the sense my reality can be someone else's ideal. No problem. But an ideal of mine cannot also at the same time be incorporated into my reality. So, once I make a switch from one to the other, it literally changes it's listing. I think I have the idea solid in my head but am having difficulty in formulating the words in the precise manner. This primarily is the flaw (in my mind) of me. Over analyze. It is rather funny because I hate it and I love it at the time. Life, how could I do without it?