Letter from Carl D. Duncan to Patricia Whiting, July 22, 1965

              Late
Past July 22, our wonderful day

My dear, dear Patricia:

While I am still excited & “high” enough to stay awake a while longer, I want to put in a letter to you my reactions to today – and to all that has led up to & contributed to our beautiful day of adventure.  – So –

Thanks for everything you have done for me and all that you mean to me – for having given me a new purpose in life.  Thanks for all the lovely memories, not only of today but of many days in the past.  Thanks for all of your worthwhile suggestions.  Thanks for accepting me so thoroughly & completely in a daughter-father relationship.  This was revealed beautifully today in selecting your luggage.  Thanks for accepting my suggestion that you make the luggage set complete & not omit the hat box because you had bought the hat.  Thanks for yielding to the growing satisfaction that I must have shown the longer I watched you try the manifold adjustments of the hat until it became apparent that you were becoming so attached to the hat that you wouldn’t be able to give it up.  Clearly it was the best hat we saw for you but you do as much for the hat as it does for you.  Undoubtedly it will continue to be a joy to you to wear it and certainly it will bring pleasure to everyone who sees you in it.

This summer at the I.P.A. convention in Washington I want to be proud of you every minute, as I have every reason to expect I shall be.  I have abundant reasons without the hat, but your taste is so excellent that with the hat I’d have one more reason to be proud of you.  – So

Thanks for your willingness to listen to & follow or try out the modest suggestions I’ve had occasion to make today.  

Thanks even for your willingness to lie down & sleep on the train coming home.  You didn’t need my suggestion to do this, though you had it anyway – but your peaceful relaxation in sleep indicated a measure of trust & confidence in me that was very gratifying.  Now that you know that I’ve never suggested to you & never will anything unless I believe it will help you & make you happier.  And since I am sure you know now that there is nothing on earth I wish more earnestly than that.  

Finally, what greater happiness could come to a person of my age & circumstances than to be able to do, as many things as I can to further the welfare of one for whom I feel as much affection as I do – as much as any parent could [page 2] feel for a daughter; with the full personal realization that what I do is appreciated & returned in appropriate measure.  

Thanks for revealing & carrying your proper share of the mutual respect that exists between us.  Along with your youth, beauty, and personal charm you display a maturity that few persons your age ever attain and many never do.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge in special fields – as the Catholic Church – Also for all the little accounts of past experiences that you have had with birds such as the pigeons we saw today and other animals, with people of various ages & experiences & beliefs.  Thanks for your appreciation of common folk such as the old Italians in the little park by the church today.    

Thanks for your interest in so many things – so many aspects of the world – that idle gossip is totally unnecessary to you.  You are so much more interesting than anyone who needs gossip for a crutch.

Thanks for being able to explore the parts of a city & find them so interesting to yourself and to share with a person such as I who all my life have enjoyed these things & thanks for finding enjoyment in such exploration on a leisurely basis.  How else can they really be appreciated?

Thanks for being to me a channel of communication with the mentally active and troubled youth of today who are striving to think & experience their way to new solutions to human problems.  So many adults become mentally crystallized (“not in their ways”) and from the moment they do, become incapable of contributing any originality to the human scene.  I want & need to maintain youthful contacts & to grow & develop as the youth of the world grow & develop.

Oh yes – and thanks for your help & ideas in my choice of sweaters, for stimulating the idea that I would benefit from wearing a French beret instead of merely liking them on others, for your suggestion on taste in shoes, and for stressing the fact that I need to wear more color, etc., etc., etc.  So again – Thanks for everything – 

Affectionately –
Love Carl