December 30, 2001
Dear Sela,
Strange to be writing someone I only know by
watching
Once and Again.
I suspect
that Lily has a lot of you in her and wonder how
much carries over and how much you differ from
her. The program is intelligent and well produced
and, though it has more soap opera emotionality
than I am altogether comfortable with, every week
I just have to see you. I don't know why I find
you so beautiful but I do; as a mystic the
strength of my feeling fascinates me in that
feelings and relational bonds are about all we
really are and beautiful ones don't appear every
day or come out of nowhere. Like women in general
(Heaven alone knows what the men are up to), these
feelings and relationships are what we study and
serve and I consider it worth the trouble to tell
you about it.
I'd like to invite you to look at my work and see if it appeals to you. I have a couple of sites on the Web. The first is
SUMARAH: A Study of the Art of Living
which is a description of Java and Javanese mysticism. The second is
THE BOOK OF BEING: "Look for Causes in Consequences"
a critique of the narcissistic abandon of the postmodern world, the affliction of Western society that is so often the subject of Once and Again in one way or another.
Another surprise in the abiding warmth of my
reaction to you is that you are an American. I am
profoundly negative about the valueless, escapist
American mentality. I was born in the States but
my experience with my family has left me so deeply
scarred and hateful about the American Way of Life
that I now live in Brazil. As
Democritus so well observed:
h
tvn suggenvn ecqrh thV tvn oqneiwn calepwterh
mala.,
i.e.,
"The enmity of relatives is much worse than
that of strangers".
I guess that's it for now. Please surprise me and write back. I would be thrilled to hear from you.
Yours affectionately,
David Howe