Hi Tad,

Good to hear from you. Congratulations on the move to Temple. I recall something in the making, but was not sure if it actually happened. Temple will be a good spot for you. I think Edna might eventually decide on Bryn Mawr, although nothing is final yet. She has applied to some other schools, too. If it is Bryn Mawr, I will definitely let you know. It would be nice to see you more regularly. You have set yourself a real challenge to focus on love as a subject in the social sciences. It is a subject hard to define and nail down, that is, to be objective about. It seeps across the very self-other and subject-object divide on which science is constructed. It would be the social science equivalent of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle in which the observer and observed mutually affect each other. Of course we know that this mutual affection has been going on in the field all along, especially anthropology, even though scholars have pretended otherwise, leaving those moments on the editing room floor when it comes to producing the final document. We have to own up to our feelings and admit that they count every bit as much as rational discourse. Religion understands the connection between things, and that this love is central to religious discourse and practice, even though when it comes to actual practice, we adherents fall short. You mentioned coming this way before next Fall. Any time in mind? Of course you are welcome to stay here with us.

Nort

It has been nearly a year since Tad and Nort had their last conversation. The recent exchange of Christmas cards prompted this latest correspondence. It has been the nature of their relationship to experience long dormant periods interrupted by a sudden chattery flurry, like a breaching whale, exchanging fresh or ripened ideas, what they had discussed in the past incubating as each takes in what the other has said and what they themselves articulated, incorporating it into their transformed beings, helping each other to evolve in their thought.


Hi Nort,

Holiday greetings! Thank you for your card and family update. Glad to hear the children are doing well. Congratulations to Edna for getting into Bryn Mawr early action. She will love it there I am sure! It is a beautiful campus and close to Philly. You did get my change of address notice and know that I am now living there and teaching at Temple, so, you have a place to stay here whenever you want to visit her. It would be great to see you again. I will probably be swinging your way before the Fall. Since we last talked I have been working on a paper on violence in East Africa. It has been a challenge because it is not my area of expertise, however the agency I was working for received a grant to model it on a computer. I am trying to put some cultural flesh on the basic agent-based modeling programming. What I am really trying to do is to bring in affect, which I believe underlies much of culture. Some anthropologists have written about affective economies, of which kinship is a clear example, so I am not too far out in left field. However my conscience is forcing me to be more explicit and actually use the word love! This is where science and humanities cross lines and I am being somewhat timid in my approach. A good anthropological and theological conversation with you on the topic would help!

Peace,
Tad