Letters

GOODBYE!

After reading Steve Miller’s “A Sign of the Times” (The Last Word, Spring 2002), Tom and I started thinking about idealization, not only in obituaries, but also in other places such as Alumni Notes and Christmas letters. Sometimes when we read class notes we wonder how every Oberlin graduate except us could have lived such a perfect life with so many extraordinary accomplishments. It would give me an inferiority complex if I didn’t know better. One of my goals in life is to write an honest Christmas letter (e.g. Cindy enjoys playing Solitaire and doing variety puzzles; Tom makes great burgers on the George Foreman grill and likes taking walks in the neighborhood and napping in the recliner on his days off. We both wear earplugs at night so we can sleep through each other’s snoring). Be sure to visit Steve’s GoodBye! web site at www.goodbyemag.com. We now have a new URL on our bookmarks. When my subscription to Newsweek runs out, I may have to switch to Goodbye! It might give me some ideas about what to write for my own obituary.

Cindy Ware Clark ’69
Mahtomedi, Minnesota