Sunday – what matters the time of day?
Dear embodiment of all that’s poetic and beautiful!
Blessings on you – wherever you are – today – tomorrow – and every hour of every day when you are not in my sight. The blessings are shared whenever you can afford me a few minutes or hours.
Someone said, some years ago – as doubtless you know full well – that “Men are only boys grown tall.” This I often realize when I think of you or when, in your presence – or looking forward to it, I try to formulate ways to present myself to you and momentarily to escape the barriers that time and circumstance seem always to place between people – not the protective devices to which everyone is entitled as shelter for his inner being, but the barriers that grow out of the semantics of life.
And now – even now – I feel a [illegible] expressed in the hope that you will understand fully what I am trying to say. I asked once that you never close the doors my including you within the poetry that is a part of me and always looking for a medium through which to be revealed. – I’ve had no reason to believe that you ever would shut me out – and perhaps when I voice such things I am only revealing that, with individuals everywhere who have lost something of their places in life, a loneliness creeps in and hovers around to fill any void that develops.
And really now, that I have got these feelings on paper, I suddenly feel a calm – and a surge of happiness that, because it is inspire by you lifts me up! You are in my poetry because you are my poetry to a large extent. And I’m sure that this pleases you.
Perhaps I feel so, because my expressions of affection & love, that were not clear in nature at first, have gradually been giving place to a more normal (?) expression in a father-daughter relationship! This I have much desired as it can exist alongside of and reinforce the sense of companionship between us that knows no time or place or climate except that of equality of or in confrontation. This is why your occasional appearance for breakfast and your cheery leave taking after a few minutes of conversation over tea ‘n trimmings – so delights me!
Now – “Men are only boys grown tall.” and you are the most delightful little girl I’ve ever known, grown “almost” tall, who has at the same time developed for [page 2] herself the most amazing character: marked by strength and beauty and a clear seeing eye – And with it all you’ve developed a surprising measure of maturity – this is what your character really says to me – and it is true character and maturity – and not the ordinary relinquishment of the spirit of adventure & forward looking, the eagerness & ambition of the young person. You’ve not begun to lose any worthwhile ideals or illusions though you may have added some, or replaced worn out illusions with better ones! Result (?) you combine the delightfulness of a child and the freshness of youth with the promise of a lively future. Don’t ever lose the combination. Persons who possess these qualities are above all other, the salt of the earth and the hope of human kind. I bow before you in admiration and deepest affection and humility – Thou kindred spirit! Dare I say this much at my age and with the barriers, or rather against them – that the sea of human mediocrity attempts to build around a person like me? – Yes, I dare, and I shall continue so to do so long as you approve and with your “leased wire” to the pulse of the oncoming generation, are willing – increasingly so – to speak out and give me guidance – as you have amy times already!
And now to the “practical” things. This coming Saturday (Mar. 27/when we go to the Mandolin Orchestra’s concert in Redwood City) Mrs. Ann Roselle will be expecting us to dinner at 5:30 so we should leave here between 4:30 and 4:45. That will give time for a leisurely hour of dinner & conversation, after which they will lead the way (by the route they think is the best) to the Veteran’s Memorial auditorium where the concert will be held. I’ll drive & follow because they’ll have a car full and anyway, we’ll want to be independent after we get there. Neither they nor we should be constrained in deciding what to do or when to leave afterward. You’ll find that Russell’s – especially Ann – as free and friendly as anyone you might wish.
Now – incidentally – (There’s that word again) please be informed that my hostel now possesses a new spool of dental floss and a couple of packs of gum against any need that you might have for either again!
The bottom of the page is approaching so to you Patricia – whose person & personality are so musical as your name – to you! My wish for “All things bright and beautiful.” I’m already anticipating breakfast! (Interjection: I heard a tufted[illegible] mouse singing a few minutes ago – over the general noise) – Love Carl.
Dr. Carl Duncan and Patricia Whiting Collection (SJSU)
