Description
198 Monday 16 April 7:30 am Dearly Beloved, I did not wake up yesterday morning feeling noticeably refreshed (that's a rare feeling in the morning anyhow, and goes with satisfaction of the whole organism, mental and psychological as well as physical; so I don't look for that degree of well-being out here, unless on those infrequent occasions when I combine sufficient sleep and prior recreation with a vivid dream of you), nor did I think much about it till late in the day; then I realized that I felt relaxed and normal for the first time in 6 weeks. If I could have one day like that in 2 weeks I’d be satisfied for now. I worked better, without any tension, and what's even more important I felt a renewed appreciation of our surroundings. I suspect that it may be difficult to convey to you what is, for you, a normal phenomenon, because your own living habits are as simple and natural (almost as Wendy's) and you would never force yourself except on emergency or special occasions; at such times the excitement and special stimulus make up for the added demands on your body and are even, psychologically, a form of recreation themselves. When they subside, you just naturally return to a normal pattern of living. That's where I have trouble; once I [pg 2] get excited or enthusiastic about something, or moved to extra action by necessity. I forget that I've done so and go on just as though the speedup were a permanent change of pace. But, as I've said before, I do learn, and one day like yesterday in which (for the first time in those several weeks) I was physically capable of stretching and yawning is a good reminder. Because of it I feel once again a sense of satisfaction in what I personally am doing as well as in the school generally. The news of Roosevelt's death was a shock to many people here. It left me dumbfounded and confused for about twenty minutes and depressed for the rest of the day (before yesterday). I had just begun work on the pay line; one of the men went back for a package of dimes which he’d forgotten and returned with the news. It was hard to believe at first. The double tragedy of Wilkie's and R's death within so short a time will be a severe handicap not, I think, to the prosecution of the war, but to settling and maintaining the peace. I am more sorry than ever now about Wallace. Time to get paid- I love you Warren
