A lovely and treasured letter I received

Your book arrived in the mail yesterday, and I stopped everything to read it right through, nonstop -- couldn't help but. I've read through any number of books in one sitting of course, but only one other comes to mind in which I definitely should have been doing something else, as was the case here, and that was Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby," so you're in good company.

The book was wonderful and I hope it will be a best-seller. Modest in tone, but wonderfully vivid and uplifting, and wonderful stories that reflect your personality so well, I chuckled many, many times, remembering all the similar good laughs we had during our high school years. I hadn't realized you were so close to your brothers all those years, nor that you had had to work so hard on the farm. You've really had a most interesting life, and, I liked the emphasis on good luck, which Liz and I have also appreciated over the years -- but it was a great way to start the book, setting the tone for the book and reinforcing it throughout.

I remember how thorough you were in learning the material in the one rigorous course we had in high school -- biology. So, the intensity you brought to your profession in patent law was but a continuation of that resolve. We actually had to study in that class and you were a master. Also, I was pleased that you mentioned Jaderborg, our English teacher, who made a huge difference in our lives. Many of his significant passages still reverberate in my mind and the wisdom they conveyed have been unforgotten.

I liked the three quotes you used at the beginning of each section, particularly the Einstein quote. It's been a hard lesson for me, because I've always felt I could do anything, and that's been the cause of alot of disappointment and depression. But it's so true; once you realize you're limitations, life can open up and you can get a perspective on what's important, and can accept other people much better as well.  The other quotes were very apt too -- you meet life where it is, and that's what you choose.

Congratulations again on a beautiful book, and on getting it reviewed in The New York Times -- no small thing! We hope to buy lots of copies and give them to friends as gifts -- and so proud to have been part of your life and can claim you as a lifetime friend. I wish everyone in our class could write such a memoir -- everyone has an interesting story I expect -- though your life has really been exceptional. Liz is reading the book now; it's spawned so many conversations, and we again are so thankful for all the good luck we've enjoyed -- an important attitude to carry into old age (so many are embittered).

Loren