(Brief) comments on the 2nd Letter

7/21/20

As Seth commented, it's interesting to see Merle and Marshall so committed, in this letter, to offsetting their hard work with leisure.  I suspect that having children shifted the binary between work and leisure since there was a lot of time (particularly for Mom) that was no longer available for "work." 

Three other things seem of note in this letter:

1)  Her description of the ordeal of working on her first book report for John Fairbank. Here you see her goal of perfectionism and commitment to the process.  In this case, one can imagine that she's worried about the response she's going to get from JF ... that with him having given her this assignment, her performance is particularly fraught and momentous for her future success.  

2) We continue to see her commitment to the discipline required to meet her goals for this time in Texas.  Here we see the obstacles that arose by having made just one dinner invitation, though of course as she acknowledges that in terms of trying to avoid the complications of human relationships, "it was rather stupid of me to even try." 

3) Dad had lots of feelings about Mom resisting his courtship, while she has no recollection of anything like this.  Seth has mentioned the fact that she was inclined to accept a dance/prom invitation from one of her Yale beaux, even though they were engaged (I think).   Remember the story of Marshall showing up to greet her in Miami Beach when the Rosenblatts arrived for their visit ... she found it rather embarrassing, though it seemed to impress Uncle Adolph.