An Email to N.N. & M.M.

9:46 AM

N**** & M***,

It’s taken a few days, but I’m starting to get settled in here in the new apartment. It’s hot. HOT hot. I took a walk this morning to campus, thinking a certain office would be open, but it was not, and I walked in the 8AM 90° weather 12 minutes back to the apartment and immediately changed clothes.

Placement exams are tomorrow. I feel good about multiple choice questions, but the essays worry me. As Estragon says in Godot: “Nothing to be done.” It’s almost hard to believe I’m expected only to take 3 classes per semester. Every semester of undergrad I took 5 or 6 classes. Just a brain shift.

I haven’t framed them yet (because I can’t get to a Michael’s [the alternator on my car died right after it was delivered on Friday; I suspect the shipping company did something]), but I’ve put one of your gifts right next to a brick I stole from the demolition site of a historic building they tore down in Schenectady after—during its construction—some shady building practices on the part of Frog Alley left the building unsalvageable. The pairing of the two objects seemed fitting.

I’ve also hung this wall art I made of this Robert Lax poem. I’ve never been able to decide if it means that just being in the world is itself healing, or if being in the world is a process of constantly being injured. I suspect it’s both.

Wishing you both the best,

Justin

P.S.

After looking Amos Kennedy up online, I learned that he's refurbishing an old building, making it into a community print shop, and calling it "The Pile Of Bricks". So the pairing of objects is even more fitting.