.

Thad and I are being home bodies, as ever, and my thoughts aren't particularly brilliant, as ever, but I know you like to hear from us none the less. (I like that phrase. None the less. I often think of it as a single word, like Therefore and Henceforth.)

I take great delight in the change of the seasons, although I may not look it. Or at least get redundant over it. But they really are delightful, and I really am surprised every year. Winter into spring is of course the most dramatic, and, for me, always surprises me the most. I can remember what it is like for everything to be stunningly green and to have the sun beat down (only barely, but I can remember it), but I forget every year the sound that that slushy ice makes when you step on it and crack it, and so it comes as a great surprise. Delightful, beyond anything, to remember the sounds and smells you hadn't thought about for a year. There is that satisfying crunching sound on occasional days when we walk down the drive to see if any mail came, and new birds singing when we forgot there were birds and that they knew such sweet songs. Last week, we heard thunder, and once smelled Spring, although we can't now. All this you know, of course, because everyone, since the seasons began, has been exclaiming over them. But it doesn't matter, because every spring is the first, and it is also the first thing we learned. I don't know how to say it, but I know you know it is true.

When I was young, I had this vague, sure understanding that there were Smart People. I guess intellectuals. And I thought colleges were teaming with them. Maybe I circulate the wrong groups, or maybe I've gotten to be too smart myself, but I am being strongly disillusioned. Colleges are full of normal people, if not, in extremity, dull ones. I guess I have a great desire to look up, and so far it seems I only get to look around. I know I'm not too smart, so it's disappointing to think that intellect is on the decline. But again, perhaps I just don't know how to find it or how to see it.

My window sill plants are thriving, which is beyond me. I thought they would have a fear of the cold that comes through the window, but they don't. What have we to fear but fear itself? Snakes, of course, but other than that? I'm just talking nonsense now, so I'll wish you well and go see if Thad is making dinner like he said he would.