74
Nov l988
Dear Gus:
I enjoyed talking to you and Carol. Also to Katy.
Glad to hear that the sailboat is still functioning. I
forget whether is a sloop or ketch. You once took me for a
sail around the harbor. A beautiful boat.
I was distressed to hear about the broken ankle. I hope that
your bones are not getting thin. I worry about my bones.
In any X rays that I have had, they looked good.
You asked me how I was doing. A good question. I am an
old man. What the Australian natives call,"Close up dead."
But life is such a brief sojourn that all of us are really in
the same boat.
Our ancestors could get a sense of immortality by being part
of the village or tribe or whatever. If they belonged to a
group with a successful culture, this could be passed on to
their children and their children's' children. A childless
person could still be part of the action by helping to
sustain the culture and teaching the ancient wisdom.
This does not happen much anymore. It is against the law to
form exclusive groups. Or at least frowned on.
In the Sept 9/88 issue of the JAMA page l453 is an article
about the New York City health crisis. There is a growing
number of AIDs cases. The majority are drug users. 80% are
black or Hispanic. Almost all are poor. These along with
homosexual AIDs cases are overwhelming the health system.
What bugs me is that in the old days, people who lived
degenerate lives soon died and there was no mystery.
They had defied the Gods of nature and the Gods had struck
them down.
Another alarming thing is that as an AIDs case progresses,
the individual becomes a culture for all sorts of dangerous
bugs or viruses. Military people in some countries have
considered spraying the enemy with dangerous bacteria. I
understand that it has happened but generally the military
are afraid of it. They favor the bang-bang.
A hundred years ago, there were plenty of epidemics. It was
noted that a disease increased in virulence if the bacteria
or virus spread rapidly through a group of low resistance
subjects, and lost some virulence if enough people an area
had a fairly high resistance.
Presently the law says that aids cases must be integrated.
Is it OK if a young school child studies and plays with aids
cases.
Hello Hello::::: I just sat down to write a happy letter
but when I sit down to write, a little demon , hiding in my
brain takes over. Just look what he has done. I will stop
now before it gets worse.
Wishing all of you long life, good health, the joy of
learning, the satisfaction of doing good work and enough
fun to make it all worth while.
Nov 15/88
Here I am again. I chickend out on the above
letter. What I wanted to say was that the enemy does not need
to spray us with bacteria. Having aids cases wander
among the populace will have somewhat the same effect.
Each AIDS case is like a time bomb getting more infective by
the day. They collect secondary infections. Small local
schools might help in limiting AIDS. Young children are
not designed to fight off an endless number of virulent bugs.
A few thousand years ago, most people lived in small
villages. If a village followed a successful lifestyle,
they might carry on for generations. If a destructive
pattern was followed, the village could slowly fade away.
Today, there are few isolated villages. We all appear to
be part of a mass of individuals who in turn are mostly
unprotected from the massive power of T.V. etc
Is this letter clear? Even if it is. it may be too
depressing to mail to anyone. However, does it express
reality? It gives me an uneasy feeling. It is now after
midnight. Ridiculous!
Sept 6/92
This letter was buried in my computer, it just
popped up when I was looking for something else.
I will print it and mail a copy.
