Spencer Heath Archive

Item 1670

Carbon of a letter from Heath to E. Merrill Root.

March 11, 1959

 

 

 

 

Dear Dr. Root:

 

A thousand thanks for your lovely and affecting letter of March first, for I, too, have few or none with whom intimately to share my adventures of the spirit, thoughts and dreams.

 

      As you say, earth and life are rich with wonder and opportunity and we should never despair, but I, for one, cannot fully savor wonder and beauty that I cannot warmly share. In the life of the mind, as of the flesh, there are deep needs of mutuality and exchange that cannot be self-supplied.

      Public and political affairs for the near-term outlook

are none too bright. But we need not despair. Despite all the fearsome negative, never before were men so productive nor longer lived. And what serves Life serves God; all else must pass away. For Life, as the Creative Principle, is the Spirit of Freedom that ever more transcends the otherwise meaningless determinism of the inorganic, weaving it into specific patterns of its own, unique yet flexible to its creative will towards ever more versatile and more enduring forms.

      I am happy to be in touch with you, even though apart, for with too few inspiring contacts, creativity and its joys, as I know too well, tend to die down.

     I have sent for your most recent volume of verse and look forward to enjoying it very much.

                            Cordially,

 

sh/m

Enclosures: Practice of Christian Freedom

           Christian Doctrine of Man