February 8, 1980 Dear Andrew I am sending This home, instead of to Middlebury, Since I don't have your zip code for mailing, I got your note as part of a group letter from you, Phil and Mark, and which mentioned seeing me on TV. That was quite a Christmas, and, as you can Imagine, meant more than most Chrirtmas's [sic]. Dr. Coffin made a very good point, that our lives are indeed confined. But all that should mean that as lives can flow in deeper channels, to think about all the things we Usually put off thinking about. In other words, what the Speaker at your prize day was thinking about- a life reappraised and reconsidered, not with remorse but with a determination to do better. Among the things I intend to "do better" in if the question of boats. If page 3. Uncle Sandy is still interested, we should go ahead and get a J-24. Maybe you and Phil could keep it on Lake Champlain for Fall and Spring Sailing ? Anyway, we should look into it. Nana writes that she and Gaqa are considering laying off 50% of the Saga an Uncle Alec. I don't think that we will need a Mercury anymore. It's served its purpose. Dunc's principal interest is tennis, He can always crew. My athletic accomplishment, which at the best of times were not extensive, are even more limited here. Bur, weather permitting, we get to walk around outdoors, and there is an indoor exercise room for running-in-place. Keep up the good work. Nothing below B+ at Middle bury is very good indeed. The big (inside) page 4 advantage of a language course like German is the precision of thought that it gives you. I noticed in Studying Arabic that my English got a lot better, Another advantage is that, than compared to courses like history, it tends to minimize on lecturer. There tend to be a waste of Time. Dr. Johnson, whose biography I'm reading, despised them (although he ghost- wrote them for professors who were running out of gas). Better to read the original works from which lecturer were taken, They might be useful, he conceded, for determining chemistry experiments or in a course on repairing shoes. - Dad