Okay, enough joking. I guess you must have known that your letters were going to shake me up big-time. And I understand now why it took you so long to send them. I understand the way you feel about the Maine trip. I guess we forget that we live in an enlightened progressive bubble on Long Island. There are a lot of jerks and squares in the world (especially Maine). Like you said, if people and the cops had been nicer to us, we would have had a better time. And I dig how you feel about living out of Odysseus. It’s not for everyone. And it’s not like it’s something I always have to do, either. Next trip, I promise we’ll figure out better places to stay. I’ll make sure you get lots of opportunities to shower.

If you’re thinking that’s the easy stuff to fix, I agree. What’s hard is trying to understand the way you’re feeling. I guess the problem is that you feel like you had two bad trips in one. First was the crappy way we were treated and the second was lunatic Lucas tripping during the drive back to Long Island.

But the thing is, neither one of those bad trips was permanent. Do they really mean you have to doubt our entire relationship? We don’t have to go to Maine again, and I don’t have to take acid and drive again. In fact, I don’t have to take acid again, period. I’ve tripped plenty. Maybe enough is enough, you know?

And I get the stuff about me smoking too much grass. I don’t entirely disagree. I think I should cut back on all forms of inhalation (except breathing, of course). All that smoke can’t be good for one’s health.

Also, I appreciate your concern on the draft front. I’ve been talking to a draft counselor about something called a moral case for refusing to participate in war. Usually conscientious objector cases are based on religious beliefs like the Jehovah’s Witnesses or Quakers because they’re considered Peace Churches that have always been opposed to military service. But Charles, my draft counselor, is going to help me construct a case based on personal moral code and the just-war theories of Thomas Aquinas and secular thinkers like Camus (The Stranger, remember?), Thoreau, and Bertrand Russell.

I’m hoping that once I’ve gotten past the draft problem, we can be together next year. I could move up to Waitsfield or Warren and work at a ski area.