Dad
My father always sends the best emails.

Hey Air,
Thanks for the note.

As someone or other said, “In the real world (as opposed to thinking about it), the incommensurable becomes commensurable.” And an important (though not the only) ingredient of that process really IS what old Lao Tzu was talking about…

Oh dear. I see I called him “old” Lao Tzu. I just re-read (first time since 1961) “Catcher in the Rye.” Never out of print since 1951 or so and still quite a read. Long ago, when I first read it, I found myself strangely affected by Holden Caulfield speak (and write), calling everyone “old,” prefacing each redundant thought with “I mean,” seeing phonies everywhere, and so on. I thought it terribly spontaneous, hip in a sort of effete, fey way, and even natural sounding to carry on that way. I eventually (mostly) recovered. This time, I had fun reading “Catcher” out loud to myself in a David Sedaris monologue voice, realizing that Salinger was there about 50 years before the current crop of faggish wags like Ira Glass and so on.