Dear Adele,
Hullo sweet dear! I listed out my birthday presents for you last week, but it must be in my system of neglect to forget all about the best of them:
-Laura, in an effort I think to shut up my frequent monologues against “the time-wasting effects of watching nothing but movies and television; turn it off and find a book or write a story!”, wrote a short story for me! Here’s the first paragraph of Pearl, Earl, and the Jumping Jacks Affair, which I’m sure you’ll agree is the spirit of Laura to the bone (as long as we assume spirits have skeletal systems):
“Pearl and Earl had been married for fifty two and a quarter years. Pearl loved Earl. Earl loved Pearl. Pearl and Earl were not a happy couple. Well, if they loved each other, why were they so unhappy? All you need is love, as Paul McCartney constantly reminds us with his sweet serenades. Earl was having an affair… with jumping jacks. Oh, you may laugh. You may even scoff at the audacity to tell such a tale. No, no, I tell only the truth and nothing but the truth!! So, Judge Mathis, if you will lend me an ear, I will take you on the journey of Pearl and Earl. An endeavor filled with dentures, Johnny the P.E. student, crappy country music, and in the end, poisoned potato salad. This is an odyssey that you will not soon forget.”
Not that the spirit of Laura has ever had much to do with the affairs of married people, but you know what I mean. What a great gift! She offered nothing purchased—just the ideas of a weird and fun teenage mind! Remember being a teenager? Just asking.
-I also got a rockin awesome backback made out of BURNT-ORANGE CORDUROY! (Not, I assume, made of real oranges) I opened it and was like, “what is this thing”, because it was orange and threw me off. I don’t know who sent it to me, but I think I’ll enjoy pretending it was Eddie Vedder.
Speaking of Pearl Jam: one of my life’s highest callings—to see Pearl Jam live—will be fulfilled on September 28th down in Salt Lake City. I bought the tickets as soon as I could after they were available for purchase and still could only get seats in the 36th row, but in the scheme of things that might be pretty close, close enough that I might catch some of Stone Gossard’s legendary projectile sweat on my fingertips if I stand on my chair with arms raised! Which I plan on doing. I don’t know yet who to take with me, since Camilla will be in Omaha with Mom at the same time for the installation of Grandpa’s final sculptures in that sprawling memorial to pioneers and bankers—but I’m sure the Lord is preparing someone to receive Pearl Jam into their hands.
I was home completely alone for the 2nd half of this past week. The family went with a tent to mountains of Cache Valley, and I stayed behind because apparently the eternally ringing phones of Western Wats would be comfortless and disoriented without me, functioning like drunks, or Texans. Ted and I went on numerous adventures, which I don’t have time to write and you don’t have to read. But it was a great bonding time. Someday I’ll write a memoir called “Travels With Ted”, and give you a signed copy.
Lest I forget AGAIN: Playmill was so BEAUTIFUL, Adele. This was the first time I’ve ever been there, and the whirling MAGIC of the theatre was everywhere in it, on the stage, in the seats. The performers exhaled nothing but magic and the air was thick with it, I started coughing on it in fits of delight. I drove up with two excessively funny people, Liz Whittaker and Katie Ludlow. Liz shared a lot of Playmill lore with us as we passed through very pretty country covered with trees. I was reminded a bit of Newfoundland, which is itself a forest-island with a few cleared-out spots where people have decided to bed down. We wound up seeing two shows, “The Secret Garden” (dunno if you’ve ever seen it, it moves pretty fast, has a lot going on, but somehow thinking on it as a whole is like watching a ballet dancer in slow motion… touching and gorgeous) and “Guys and Dolls” (which was BRILLIANT and so so fun!), with some burger-eating in between. I can’t remember what burger I got, but I think it deserves to be President, with the fries as its cabinet.
I’ve been learning that human beings are so precious and have so much to offer me. Since you’ve been on your mission I’ve been so blessed in the associations that I’ve been building with people. I myself have had little to do with it. It’s like I just step into the right place and someone jumps out and grabs my hand and yanks me off into some beautiful adventure. Just as you expressed to me a couple years back, I too am feeling the blessings of having a missionary from the family in the field. Somehow, you being in Chile has influenced my “stepping into the right places.” For this I am grateful. I would offer you a cigar, but I have none, and I doubt you’ve taken up smoking in recent months anyway.
Adele, you are so loved! Keep your chin up and your sword shiny, and I’ll pray we both find what we’re looking for.
And thus I close
With the wild franticness
of a rock under cool water,
Jacob
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