New Eyes for the Old Dog

Subject: NEW EYES FOR THE OLD DOG; from Galen

Monday
November 20, 2006

Dear Jaromir (& Magda),

Thanks again for inviting us to Andrew's going-away party at Governor Stumpy's last Saturday night. Marie agrees that it would probably have been a bit much for her; and I very much enjoyed chatting one-to-one with you, Jaromir. I look forward to continuing our "dangling conversation" (a la Paul Simon) on Thanksgiving. I'll do my best not to embarrass you in front of your other friends.

Since our most recent visit, I've been thinking more about that problem of good people being in love with their own goodness, of liberals being in love with their liberal virtues, of (not to intentionally make a joke of it) the humble being proud of their very humility. On a purely existential level, it's a dilemma with which I find myself struggling more and more, as the years wear on and time runs out. As I mentioned to you Saturday night, Thomas Franks addresses this problem in WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS?. But Karl Rove and his boy W. are both evil but believe themselves to be virtuous.

One of the most important lessons life has taught me is that WORDS LIE. You probably figured this out while still a boy. Many people do. But I only began understanding it one evening at the Wichita State University library while thumbing through Ludwig Wittgenstein's blue & brown Notebooks. It was something he said, the exact wording of which I'd never be able to go back and find, even if my life depended on it. But it's precisely because it's so very difficult to MAKE WORDS TELL THE TRUTH that I seem to have chosen that difficult pursuit as my hobby.

At this particular juncture in my journey, I'm enjoying listening to you and Magda describe your experiences and observations as relative newcomers to these United States and to Kansas. Our faux-president said recently that we need to have some NEW EYES looking at the problems in Iraq. As much as I hate to go where W. has gone or to touch anything he has touched, I'm going to steal his NEW EYES metaphor just long enough to say that I'm finding it refreshing to look at our country and our regional culture through the new eyes of our new European friends.

Thanks again for inviting me/us to the Saturday thing and to the Thanksgiving with your other friends. See you Thursday at 1:30. (Should we perhaps get some aerosol whipped cream for the pumpkin pies? Would that seen as de classe? Gouache? Let us know.

Faithfully Faithless,

Galen