To Bob St. John

Hey Bob,

As always it was good to hear from you.  I’ve been lounging around a lot after the knee surgery and my knee is coming along very well.  Tomorrow I’ll go to the doctor and hopefully get into Physical Therapy by the end of the week.  I hope to be back in the gym by November 1.

Sorry to hear that your Paros book is coming along so slowly.  Your friendship with so many is kind of a blessing and a curse isn’t it?  Judging from your old column in the Morning News and your books it’s easy to see that you have a soft heart for people.  Folks can sense it in you…that’s why they keep coming back.  Back when I was in ministry, at times I would just hide from people to write or to take care of my own mental/emotional and spiritual needs. Jeri was also very good at fending off certain people who wanted me available all the time. I’ve been known to hide out on lonely beaches and at monasteries and retreat centers .  My favorite place is a retreat center out in Pennsylvania called Kirkridge situated right on the Appalachian Trail. The staff leaves you alone there and since it’s in the mountains cell phone service is pretty much impossible. I still go there and Jeri has come to love the place as much as me. Also now that I’m retired I’m not that easy to reach except for certain people whom I want to reach me.  In regard to your situation with all of your friends and contacts, it must be hard for you to be unavailable and especially hard for you to say “No”.  Of course at times we’ve got to do it in order to get projects accomplished, to have some personal life and to keep our sanity (what there is left of it).  I still have trouble saying “No” but I might be a little better at it than I used to be. My advice to you….HIDE!

Concerning Forrest Carter (aka Asa Earl Carter), what a fascinating and controversial life. I read THE EDUCATION OF LITTLE TREE years ago and I almost always watch Clint play OUTLAW JOSEY WALES when it’s on TV.  I like to think that Carter changed from his earlier days as a staunch segregationist and anti-Semite. He sure seemed to become an advocate for Native American rights.

Your friend who died, his first and second wives and his kids “the terrible trio” sound like a family or two or three that I’ve known.  Sad about the way he treated his second wife.  Do you still have any contact with her?  From what you mention about his first wife and three kids, I would probably keep as far away from them as possible.

I never read Stendahl’s book THE RED AND THE BLACK.  I might pick it up in the library and try it.  Recently I did read Albert Camus’s THE STRANGER.  Also I just finished Robert Louis Stevenson’s KIDNAPPED which I got interested in while traveling in Scotland.  The geographical context for KIDNAPPED is in Scotland out in the western Islands of Iona and Mull, through the Highlands and east to the Edinburgh area.  After spending time in those areas plus meeting a lot of Scots I now claim my Scotch heritage. However I’m still most proud of the Irish that’s in me. Finally you probably won’t believe the book I’ve started to read again after many years…THE HOBBIT.  There’s just something about Tolkien and  those little portly people with hairy feet.

 Don’t worry about writing me back too soon.  Instead, hide somewhere and take those thoughts about Paros and get  them down on  paper.

Go Dodgers.  Go Barach and Joe.

Sure hope that you and Sandy are doing well.

Mike