THE BEST OF TIMES

Dear Ernest,

What a year! It's 1922, and you're 23 years old this year. WOW! What you've seen and experienced in your life, dear Hem, in those 23 years could fill a book. By 19 you were immersed in the war, in Italy, and wounded. You've survived the streets of Chicago as a cub reporter; you've fished, hiked and canoed your way from Canada to Michigan; you've loved, lost, and loved again; and you've married and moved to Europe - Paris in particular. That's what I call action packed, my friend.

And now... biggest WOW of all! You're living your dream, married to the woman you're mad about, hiking and skiing in Switzerland, enjoying the life fantastic in Paris. What more could you ask for? 

In January, 1922 you wrote your family, "Bones (your term of endearment for Hadley) and I are living up here at about 3,000 feet above sea level and having the most gorgeous time... It is Les Avants, above Montreaux on Lake Geneva and wonderful mountain sports." You write them of your your new apartment in Paris, "It is on top of a high hill in the very oldest part of Paris. The nicest part of the Latin quarter. Just back of the Pantheon and the Ecole Polytechique." You write your good friend, Katherine Smith, "My gawd the fun a man has...It is so beautiful here that it hurts in a numb sort of way all the time,only when you're with somebody you're lovers wit the beauty gets to be jost sort of a tremendous happiness. It's so damn beautiful, Butstein, and we have so damn much fun."

My dearest Hem, you are fully, totally, and completely smitten - with Hadley, with Paris, with Switzerland...with life! These are truly the best of times. And the people you are meeting! You write of dining with Gertrude Stein who, as you share, "is keen about your poetry." You go on to share, "Me and Ezra Pound are getting to be great pals." The literary mix you are immersed in is impressive.

I am so very please to hear that you are writing. This wonderland that you inhabit, these creatives that you are entrenched with, it all comes together to create a rare and fortunate opportunity. The experiences you're amassing, whether hiking the Black Forest of Germany, or fishing the pristine streams of rural France, are all fodder for the literary pieces you will create and the works you will put forth.

Remember, dear Hem, to take the time to appreciate and enjoy this time. Life is so uncertain and change is inevitable, but for right now the world is your oyster. Enjoy!

With Warmest Regards,
Betsy