Dearest Patricia:
The enclosures mostly need no comment. I’m sorry not to have heard John Cage because you aroused my curiosity about him. But he spoke in [the] concert hall last Wednesday evening while we were having dinner and I wouldn’t miss dinner with you for all the John Cages there are. You are still the most wonderful being on earth to me and I don’t expect ever to have cause to change my feeling toward you. However, if you didn’t read it, you may be interested in reading what the Spartan Daily commentator had to say about him.
You were delightful when I phoned you Saturday night late in my reaction to your birthday gift to Connie, which was the kind of beautiful present that only you could create for a sister. The whole concept of it had the execution with your comments with each picture was pure poetry. On the rare occasions when I see something you have done - poetically - I feel completely humbled - in admiration, not in any depreciative sense. I feel poetic much of the time and I see much of poetry in life, but my poetry is formal whereas yours is of the essence! I’ve tried to tell you this a couple of times and no doubt I’ll keep on trying, for I don’t think I’ve succeeded yet. Not only do I feel humble when I read your lifting words, but I feel proud - so proud of you and thankful for the chance circumstances that made possible the development of the relationship between us. Among my friends, I’ve encountered only approval of it. Bess Frank thinks you’re a doll - and she’s right! Betty walker thinks the relationship is fine - and so also does Mrs. Rigter, the most hard-headed and level headed of the lot. Her only concern, from the first was for your welfare, not for mine, which she felt was secure because [page 2] I’ve been known so long, but she didn’t want you to get hurt by what some thoughtless or jealous person might say. I’m sure, now, that all such possibilities are past and that there’s nothing to be concerned about. It’s quite apparent to anyone worth his salt that both you and I have been level headed and neither of us has shown any aberrant behavior and that our relationship and mutual affection is completely wholesome - all of which is most rewarding to me.
I’m now looking forward to May 3 when I’m the honored guest of the Newman Club. The event that, so far as I know, began as something planned for the Newman club, is now to be held at the San Jose Country Club and has been opened to the public, so it should be quite an affair. Of course, I’d be honored to no end if you’d like to go. Doris talks as if she would and I know a miscellany of persons around the college are planning to attend. You can tell me how you feel or how the dinner jives with your plans when we have dinner tomorrow evening.
Today I got my ticket to Bloomington, Indiana. I’ll leave the S.F. Airport at 12:30 (midnight) after we have dinner next Wed. (May 4) and will arrive in Bloomington at 11:31 or thereabouts on Thursday. The opera I’m to be treated to Thursday P.M. at the University of Indiana is “Die Rosencavalier”.
Also today I got the tickets for the Hans Conreid performance of “The Absence of a Cello” for Friday may 13 after I get back from Indiana. I hear that it is a most enjoyable show. We’ll have to take the train (hopefully) or a bus (if we have to) to get to the city, but the show should be most enjoyable. No doubt we can have a bite to eat in S.F. beforehand. I enclose a leaflet on the show.
Well, it’s 5:00 P.M. and time for me to get ready to head for dinner at the Walker’s. Have a good evening and a good night afterward, and good luck on all your exams. - Love Carl.
Dr. Carl Duncan and Patricia Whiting Collection (SJSU)
