{"id":1152,"date":"1973-12-10T00:01:34","date_gmt":"1973-12-10T08:01:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/pmjj\/?p=1152"},"modified":"2022-07-03T14:21:28","modified_gmt":"2022-07-03T21:21:28","slug":"1973-december-10-letter-from-peter-to-gh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/pmjj\/1973\/12\/10\/1973-december-10-letter-from-peter-to-gh\/","title":{"rendered":"1973, December 10: Letter from Peter to G&H"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

This one was written about six months after the previous substantive letter. There were clearly at least a few other letters and\/or phone calls during that gap, but I have no record of them.<\/p>\r\n

By this point we had moved into the new house in Santa Rosa. I gather (from one of the kid letters in the previous entry) that the first two foster kids had arrived a couple weeks before Peter wrote this letter, but he doesn\u2019t mention them at all.<\/p>\r\n

Content warning for another racist quasi-joke (which I\u2019ve elided) and for orientalist generalizations about Japanese people (which I haven\u2019t elided because too much of the rest of the letter is intertwined with them). And for the use of the word inscrutable<\/i>. Also, unrelatedly, for making fun of an author\u2019s surname.<\/p>\r\n

Here\u2019s a drawing that was enclosed with the letter\u2014see letter for more info.<\/p>\r\n

\"Plan<\/a>
Plan for altar.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

And here\u2019s a flyer that was enclosed with the letter, giving an introduction to our church. I think I\u2019m not gonna transcribe the flyer. It\u2019s a trifold brochure on legal-size paper; I\u2019ve scanned the front cover, the inside three columns, and the back cover as three separate scans. (There\u2019s one more column (the one between the back and the front covers) that I didn\u2019t scan, which just has a small decorative icon on it.)<\/p>\r\n

\"Church<\/a>
Church of World Messianity flyer: cover.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n
\"Church<\/a>
Church of World Messianity flyer: interior.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n
\"Church<\/a>
Church of World Messianity flyer: back.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

OK, onward to the letter, which is three pages long and typed on onionskin paper (or similar).<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

December 10, 1973<\/p>\r\n

Dear Parents,<\/p>\r\n

The spirit moves me very seldom to sit down and write a letter, and I think it's because of the paucity of feedback that I've gotten in response to my missives, all my life. Por ejemplo: I wrote over four stenographer's books of dithyrambic ramblings to Connie Fletcher before I finally got the idea that there wasn't going to be any reply; I used to send shoeboxes of science-fiction books, also letters and Christmas presents to Michael Lyons, for several years before I realized that he was not interested in acknowledging receipt of them; just a month ago a counselor we knew in Stockton asked if he could come and visit us--I wrote back and said to let us know when he'd arrive--the dates he'd mentioned came and went and no word from him as yet; I wrote a three page, very friendly and stimulating letter to five people who'd interviewed me for a job, exploring in greater depth some of the things we'd talked about during the interview--that was three months ago and I expect there'll be no reply (although the director of Plumfield, who sold us this house, didn't reply for three months to my letter applying for a job as counselor--when she did, the letter said, \"I think I have something for you,\" and she sure did!!); and I felt badly about your lack of response to our enthusiasm & excitement when we first began considering buying this house and setting up a group home: but anyway, that's all \"water under the bridge\" now--now you're the ones who send nice letters and don't get replies very often, and I'm the one who doesn't write . . . so it goes.<\/p>\r\n

Anyway, we want to thank you very very much for the thoughtful gifts you've sent us--it's not only the thought that counts, it's the gift too, and those you've sent have been just what we needed--the flowers for moral support in an emotionally cold house the first night, and the blankets for physical warmth on increasingly cold nights. (We have central heating, but blankets are cheaper than gas...) Handwritten in margin:<\/span> towels, too<\/p>\r\n

Also, your beautiful grandchildren have enjoyed very much the letters, cards, and books and puzzles you have sent them--I guess that they are much more conscientious letter-writers than Marcy and I are at this time. We're still looking for a nursery school for Joaquin, but we've found a very beautiful school for Jed--it's called Redwood Free School. There are about ten kids, ages about 4 to 8 (ungraded), the teacher is very nice, and Jed really loves it. It costs $40 a month (plus we clean up the schoolhouse a couple times a month), and the teacher is going to start (tomorrow) driving Jed to school and back, in exchange for some of the food we buy so cheaply because of buying in quantity (60-pound tins of honey, case-lots of tomato-paste, etc.)--also when we have goats and a garden there'll be surpluses to barter for services and goods.... For instance, our friend Donna is interested in shearing the long-hair goats we'll have, then teaching our kids how to wash, card, spin, and knit the mohair in exchange for it....<\/p>\r\n

Something we're looking forward to with great joy in our hearts is the dedication of a Sacred Scroll here at Hearthlight (Somewhat racist pronunciation-related quasi-joke elided by Jed<\/span>), in an altar I am going to build soon (see enclosed sketch). The upper character on the scroll is pronounced \"hikari\" (hee-coddy) meaning \"Light\", and the bottom one means \"Bright\" (I forget the pronunciation, and I didn't draw it quite right, but it's composed of the characters for sun and moon...). The idea is that we want God's Light to permeate our home, so that it may be a center of Light, and so that we may better serve God and help fulfill the Divine Plan for our planet, by helping people to be happy and by helping to build a paradise on this Earth.<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

As you know, the Japanese people venerate their parents and set great store by all of their ancestors. What Marcy and I need to do before receiving our Sacred Scroll, is to say prayers honoring and commemorating the spirits of all of our deceased ancestors, may they go in peace in the spiritual realm. (Or in the \"many mansions\" that Jesus spoke of...) In particular, we would like to know, if at all possible, the full names, the dates of passing, and the causes of death, of Peder and Ida Hanson, and of Charles and Etta Hartman. (In Japan, this commemoration is done only for the patrilineal ancestors--father, two grandfathers, four great-grandfathers, etc., because it is thought that at the time of marriage, a woman gives up her own ancestors and takes on those of her spouse; but I'm sure the women's movement in this country would never subscribe to such a view, so (better safe than a chauvinist pig) we'll pray for all<\/u> of them....)<\/p>\r\n

I hope you will understand that this is done not in the spirit of lighting candles and paying a priest to pray somebody out of purgatory, but rather in the spirit of putting flowers on someone's grave--by way of paying our respect to the person for completing his\/her coursework assigned by the Teacher in this strange and wonderful University of Life on Planet Earth....<\/p>\r\n

I have been praying for you both, and putting your names on the altar at the church in San Francisco, at the tsukinami-sai (monthly services) and when we go down (once a week) to do go-hoshi sampai (prayer and service in the House of the Lord), that you might be healthy and happy, and filled with Divine Light, so that you will be more and more suitable instruments for God to use (working, as always, in mysterious ways and inscrutable modes...).<\/p>\r\n

I hope you have been well: Jed had a cough for a week but went back to school today, and Joaquin picked it up but he's getting over it now too. By the way, both Marcy and I are totally<\/u> enjoying a book called \"Total Man,\" by Stan Gooch (that must be his real name, poor fellah)--it relates all the themes of mythology to facets of personality, and these in turn to the physiological structures of our prodigious brains... most interesting. Try it, you'll like it.<\/p>\r\n

Handwritten:<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Love from all of us, Peter, Marcy, Jed, & Joaquin<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

One more thing: on the back of the envelope, Marcy wrote:<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

The advent calender was a stroke of genius! Came on the 1st, too! I\u2019d just decided to look for one when it came. The kids love it!<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

Notes<\/h2>\r\n
\r\n
Nature Farming<\/dt>\r\n
(From the flyer.) I was familiar with the other tenets of the church that are outlined in the flyer, but I don\u2019t recall ever before hearing that nature farming was a thing the church did. Interesting.<\/dd>\r\n
\u201cpaucity of feedback\u201d<\/dt>\r\n
This is not the only time that Peter complained about people not replying to his letters and gifts. On the one hand, I understand that people like to feel appreciated, and that acknowledging letters and gifts is a nice way to help people feel that way. On the other hand, I sometimes feel like there were various contexts in which Peter felt like he was owed something, and got pretty upset when he didn\u2019t get it. And I wonder whether this situation was as one-sided and consistent as he makes it sound, or whether it was just the usual thing where people are busy and sometimes don\u2019t respond to stuff even if they appreciated it. (I may be feeling a little defensive on those other people\u2019s behalfs, because I\u2019ve never been great about responding to people, and have been particularly bad at it during the pandemic. But I feel like it\u2019s not only<\/em> me these days; I\u2019ve been seeing a lot of other people posting things lately on social media along the lines of \u201chey, I still care about y\u2019all, I\u2019m just not coping very well and am not managing to reach out.\u201d)<\/dd>\r\n
(\u2026I also feel like he\u2019s conflating different categories of stuff here\u2014for example, years\u2019 worth of unacknowledged gifts to his old friend Mike Lyons seem to me to be pretty different from \u201cI wrote \u2026 a stimulating letter to five people who\u2019d interviewed me,\u201d and both of those seem to me to be pretty different from \u201cyour lack of response to our enthusiasm & excitement.\u201d)<\/dd>\r\n
(\u2026And re that last point: I suspect that after five-plus years of Peter expressing enthusiasm and excitement about huge new life-changing projects that then disappear a few months later and are never mentioned again, George and Helen may have gotten a little wary. But I\u2019m just speculating.)<\/dd>\r\n
Redwood Free School<\/dt>\r\n
See my blog post about Redwood School<\/a> from late 2021.<\/dd>\r\n
Donna<\/dt>\r\n
The family friend whose house in Woodacre I think we stayed at during some part of the six-month gap between letters. I recently listened to a letter that Donna sent us on audio cassette tape, probably sometime around the early 1970s; she was spinning as she talked. I vaguely think that she might have spun yarn from the fur of her samoyed dogs? Not sure.<\/dd>\r\n
\u201cthe long-hair goats we\u2019ll have\u201d<\/dt>\r\n
Probably needless to say, we didn\u2019t end up getting any long-hair goats, as far as I know.<\/dd>\r\n
\u201cSacred Scroll\u201d<\/dt>\r\n
I think the church<\/a> encouraged members to set up altars in their own homes, with (among other things) a calligraphy scroll.<\/dd>\r\n
\u201cpronounced\u201d and \u201cpronunciation\u201d<\/dt>\r\n
I would say Peter\u2019s phrasing is a little confused\/confusing here; it\u2019s not so much that the \u201ccharacter\u201d \u5149<\/i> is \u201cpronounced\u201d as the written word hikari<\/i>, it\u2019s more that the word that\u2019s written in kanji as \u5149<\/i> is transliterated<\/em> into r\u014dmaji<\/a> as hikari<\/i>. (Or to try to put that another way: it feels weird to me to say that a written string of English letters is the \u201cpronunciation\u201d of a given kanji; I would say that the written kanji and the written transliterations are both written representations of the spoken word in question.)<\/dd>\r\n
\u201chee-coddy\u201d<\/dt>\r\n
This is probably the closest Peter could get to writing the pronunciation of hikari<\/i> in such a way that George and Helen would get a rough sense of how it\u2019s pronounced. (There are lots of ways that non-Japanese speakers might wildly mispronounce the word.) But I nonetheless find writing it this way a little offputting.<\/dd>\r\n
the kanji on the scroll<\/dt>\r\n
The kanji that Peter was trying to describe here are \u5149<\/i> and \u660e<\/i>. Together, they form the word k\u014dmy\u014d, which has various meanings in various contexts. I\u2019m no expert, but I gather that (for example) in Buddhism, it has several meanings, most of which are related to light, both literal and metaphorical.<\/dd>\r\n
I feel like Peter\u2019s framing here implies that the two kanji together just mean \u201cbright light\u201d; but I suspect that he was missing a fair bit of context.<\/dd>\r\n
\u2026I also feel like\u2014as usual in these letters\u2014Peter is trying to frame the church\u2019s concepts in semi-Christian terms. I\u2019m not sure whether he was doing that in order to try to translate them into terms his parents might understand, or whether it was in keeping with Peter\u2019s own framing for himself.<\/dd>\r\n
\u201cPeder and Ida Hanson, and of Charles and Etta Hartman\u201d<\/dt>\r\n
Helen\u2019s parents and George\u2019s parents, respectively.<\/dd>\r\n
\u201cpatrilineal ancestors--father, two grandfathers, four great-grandfathers\u201d<\/dt>\r\n
\u2026I think Peter was confused here; your mother\u2019s father (for example) is not a patrilineal ancestor.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peter explains why he doesn\u2019t write often, and talks about my new school, and talks about his plan to set up an altar in our home with which to pay respect to our ancestors. \u201cI hope you will understand that this is done not in the spirit of lighting candles and paying a priest to pray somebody out of purgatory, but rather in the spirit of putting flowers on someone’s grave.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-peter","category-hearthlight"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/pmjj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/pmjj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/pmjj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/pmjj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/pmjj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1152"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/pmjj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1215,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/pmjj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152\/revisions\/1215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/pmjj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/pmjj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/pmjj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}