This will eliminate ALL irritating noises, and if someone needs your attention, he/she can tap you on the shoulder.

Dear LW:

I am arriving late in the letter writing game, but I think I understand where you are coming from psychologically. I wonder if the real issue here inheres in your ability to trust (or to not trust). I am assuming (perhaps erroneously) that you suffered some sort of trauma when you were younger or experienced a significant betrayal. It seems that you have anxiety because of this and that you are troubled by behavior in others, especially in a romantic partner, that seems unpredictable, reckless, or potentially treacherous. It seems to me that you want to believe that you can understand and predict a person's behavior and trust that person to act in the best interests of the relationship. Drug use can obviously complicate this. It may fundamentally be the case that this woman is not the right partner for you if her attitude seems flippant or if she doesn't take your anxiety about the matter seriously. You may want to explain why it disturbs you so much (it is o.k. to need reassurance).

Best wishes, LW.

She filled my childhood imagination with the wonders of space and time travel, the beauty of family and relationships. One of my dearest friends in grad school once commented that L'Engle was also a true feminist: "She taught me that girls could do science."

L'Engle's legacy as one of the most significant fantasy writers for children (and I would argue adults) is firm and concrete; I believe she added as much to the genre as major earlier writers such as Lewis, et al. Her innovations were true and genuine and with so much imitative fantasy writing out there her books were marvelously *new.*

Best of all for me -- a searching Catholic in my youth -- she articulated a gently beautiful, universe-conscious Christianity that was the only to make sense to me (then and now). With the single exception of Richard Adams' Watership Down, her books taught me more - gave me more -- about spirituality, goodness, sacrifice, and love than any church teachings.

I had always hoped to meet Ms. L'Engle. Instead, I must hope that there is an afterlife and that she is reunited with her husband, to whom she was devoted until he died tragically of cancer. We will miss you and the world is less bright without you.

Not that I am biased, but clearly one of the best opening sequences ever -- the answering machine messages, that montage of still photos, the fantastic music...