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Katie Schlaikjer is a superb young cellist. We have known her for most of her 31 years, since she grew up in the church at which I was a longtime organist.
By coincidence, Katie was a resident musician last summer at Silver Bay, our yearly vacation spot on Lake George. It was there that she played the recital featured on the CD she sent us.
How does one write a letter of thanks for a gift received six months before? Below is an answer to that question.
13 August 2005
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Letter to Katie
16 December 2004
Dear Katie,
Today seemed an apropos time to write to you (horribly and depressingly and inexcusably late as it is), since it is after all Beethoven's 234th birthday1, and he is clearly one of your favorite composers (mine too.)
Yeah, I'm horribly 2 late getting back to you, after the incredible thoughtfulness of your postcard and then the CD as well. In fact, I'm now even later, and thus more inexcusable3, since it is now late February. Ah well, I'll give a couple of weak, flimsy excuses, and we'll see whether you find my behavior any more, er, excusable:
In mid-October4, I slipped off a chair onto my knees5. My legs splayed out under me, and tests showed I broke one of them. So I was in hospital (as the British say) for several weeks - and in the process became (even) weaker. So it's been a long road back. I decided to retire from my teaching job at Newton South High School. This I regretted having to do, since (if you can believe such a thing) I actually enjoyed teaching precalculus to eager seniors in high school. And now here I am - frozen out of teaching polar coordinates!
I was also frozen out of typing for a long time due to weakness -I would fall6 to the right7.
All of this may seem like Argumentum ad Misericordiam8 to you - and perhaps in part it is. But you'll be relieved to know that my motto is still 'The Situation is still Hopeless-But-Not-Serious!'
But, despite (or is it because of?) the above frivolities, Katie, I want to emphasize here how much we appreciated (and still do so appreciate) your ever so kind attentions to us. I have had your CD in the player beside the bed, and have listened to your recital (which, as you'll recall, I originally missed) several times. Everything is fine and bears repeated listenings. (I think my favorite is still the slow movement of the Bach, which has a dreamy, quasi-improvisational quality to it: it is stretched so precariously taut that this listener kept expecting it to snap - but it never did. Exciting stuff indeed!)
I gather that you didn't get the orchestra job in Australia (or wherever) and we're sorry for that. We hope that you are finding your life of teaching and study and performance in New York to be fulfilling. How's the thesis coming?
And, your kind encouragement aside, I am not composing music at this point. (But I am keeping that idea for a solo piece for you called 'Sonneta'9 in mind. Though I need to know your favorite sonnet!) No - I'm afraid I write humorous (?) prose on a website which Gretchen has set up for me.
If you got to the Christmas Eve service, you knew that we didn't make it. Our family gathering in Concord has to start early (like 3 P.M.) in order for those of us who need it to get to bed on time. We're all sorry to have missed you all.
Please forgive us this hiatus, Katie, and keep us informed about your doings. And if you choose to play the 'excusable/inexcusable' game, we'll understand!
Love, Ted and Dorothy
Footnotes:
1 His music is as fresh as ever, isn't it - free of cliché and trivia, and constantly inventive; and as performed as much as ever as well. [If that isn't a definition of immortality, what is?]
2 I guess that, like 'inexcusableness' (see below), there are various degrees of 'lateness' as well. ('Horribly' late seems pretty late!) I'll leave it to you as an exercise (I sound like a textbook!) to define at least three degrees of lateness.
3 Tell me, Katie - how long does behavior which is deemed 'excusable' have to go before it becomes 'inexcusable'? And are there really levels of inexcusability? So that, e.g., a delay in responding of one month may still be deemed 'excusable'; whereas a two-month delay might be deemed 'a bit inexcusable'. And one of around six months, like this, would merit the epithet 'really inexcusable!' (Suppose one waited years to respond: would that lapse garner a sort of meta-response: 'Inexcusably inexcusable!'?)
And then, what does one do with responses one deems 'inexcusable'? If it is judged 'only a bit inexcusable', one might still be relieved (if not overjoyed) to get the response, and one would be curious to see why the delay had happened. A longer delay, wherein the lapse is judged 'quite inexcusable', might find the recipient opening the letter with a bit of anger ('Well, I hope he has a good excuse for this!') Whereas the really long one deemed 'inexcusably inexcusable' may see the recipient flying into such a rage that they trample the letter violently beneath their feet without opening it.
So I ask you two questions Katie: (1) Into which category of 'inexcusable' (if, as I suspect, it falls into the 'inexcusable' category) do you think my letter falls? And (2) What was your response when you received this letter? (Obviously, if you had deemed it 'inexcusably inexcusable', then you would not be reading this now!)
4 In other words, so long after you sent your package that my delay might have already become 'inexcusable'.
5 No, I was not falling on my knees in religious rapture!
6 I am now having family and friends tie me down so as to keep me upright. (No one has taken advantage of this and beaten me thus far!)
7 The opposite way to which I fall politically!
8 "Appeal to Pity" - a logical fallacy.
9 You may recall this idea: I would write a cello analogical obligato for the sonnet. You would then have three options: of singing the text (as you play), speaking the text (ditto), or 'simply' playing with no vocals.
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