131
LETTER TO A NEPHEW AND HIS WIFE
IN PLATTSBURG, NEW YORK
Dear Fred and Michele:
Here I am, 9:40 p.m. I feel tired. Cooked a leg of lamb
yesterday. It is hard work finishing off a leg of lamb by
oneself. Gave some to Nellie next door. We both agree that
housework should be against the law.
I will have some people in for dinner on Wednesday, August
31, l988. I will cook another leg of lamb. A young girl of
age 45 will bring the dessert. I call her my "chicken lady."
She has about 20 hens, 5 ducks, and 1 drake.
People my age worry about a long illness, where the doctors
keep you alive until one ends up destitute. If I were a
Thompson's gazelle in Africa, I would have no problem. As
soon as I slowed up, the cheetahs would settle things. When
a cheetah grows old and too slow, it starves to death. There
is a certain cruelty in nature, but at least animals do not
kill each other with poison gas.
In nature, there is not much choice. The gazelle eats
vegetation, and the cheetah eats gazelles. At least they are
not lazy, and they never apply for welfare.
I am happy to be a human, even though many of my fellow
humans do not make me proud.
I regret that other creatures must die that I may live. I am
very much against cruelty to countless creatures that sustain
my survival.
Why do I write these wandering letters. Is it because when I
sit down to a typewriter, a little man inside takes over and
starts writing this stuff? So I am a prisoner of my memory
bank. To some extent, we are all prisoners.
I will stop now, even though I may not have communicated. We
are all strangers. When you read this letter, I hope that
you just laugh and then have a good dinner. It is now 10:30
pm.
Wishing you good health, good fortune, joyful hope, and a
full belly (not with junk food, however).
Love,
Uncle Bob
