In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

166 FROM to peggy gabson, already back in her native n.c., from me, already back in my native n.y.c., in anticipation of further meetings in boston “Hi!,” Peggy!, & less abstractly, & less casually—& so’s to keep in touch with int’resting you at once, following our recent chance meeting, initial conversations, & mutual introductions & Also, so as to confound this second act of oft-goofy-fate, which finds us already so many miles away from where we met; & already (I think), too soon separate May I—hoping to continue to spare us both the usual conventional guessinggames & secrecy— Tell you a few things more about me: For years, if I can remember, I used to act a whole lot like reality was a kind of optical illusion, projected By me, in my spare time, sort of. (Well, I guess that’s how lotsa people acted If, at one time, they hadda mostly “Innerly-Inclined Mind”—& so was “Just a ‘Dreamy Kid’.”) &, Although I guess like almost everybody, I’d rather not ever have changed my mind, & started acting any diff’rently, Things feel different, lately, all right, to me. How? I dunno if I can say how, ’zactly—but somehow now It all sorta feels like the diff’rence Between a purple cow, & the puce pom-poms On a cheerleader’s costume (the skirt part) —That is, one thinks one grasps what “It” is; & yet one doesn’t. Well, there are mysteries in life, doesn’t that explain it? So, I guess what philosophers say is right, hooray!;—reality’s a mix of personal internals, with certain externals (& also a few other things) added in. Now, when I think that some phenomena’s “Out There,” & that it exists in its own right, sorta unprojected (& ’specially if self-contained li’l me might go so far as to want to reach out to it) 167 I like if I can or may, right away To find out a whole lot more about it—or, as they say, to “Check It Out.” Well, I guess maybe every serious adult—if they’re not too rushed by events or confused by events & in a state of general upset—likes to do a li’l bit of that— Peggy, you told me too, for example, also that when you Were a kid, way back when; instead of accepting the life you were born to back in N.C. there, lock, stock & barrel, & hook, line & sinker, etc.— You found, early on, that you too hadda kinda “Innerly-inclined” critique to make: & so, as you too grew, learned also to look over lotsa things carefully so as to “Check Them Out”; & Thus, lively Peggy was soon considered there (as indeed lively Peggy might be considered anywhere) to be a so-called “Difficult Individual”; & even some kind of wild & terrible “Rebel”; —Well, I approve; Peggy, & think that’s just the price that some people have to pay, for being Just a little bit daring, & original. [...] ...

Share