Henry was a very early user of dating clubs. He wrote women all over the country in an effort to find a mate. He wrote dozens and dozens of them over thirty years…
Letter to Essense June 3 1962
“…Altho I think I am a pleasant and agreeable person with a smile for everyone, I have to admit that I doubt if ever I could bring myself to smile into a mirror. In fact, I have grown so old and ugly that I avoid mirrors and never peer into one except when I shave…”
Letter to Wilda September 9 1959
“…I also have a crippled leg, but really it is more like a club foot. When young, I loved to ride motorcycles and broke my ankle twice in the same spot. But I have always hiked long distances and climbed mountains. Two years ago, I took up running. With my foot, I thought I could never run, but a friend up in Colorado encouraged me to try and now I am able to run up to eight miles. And I can take a mountain trail for sixteen or eighteen miles and run half or more of the distance…”
“… I’d rather sleep under the stars than in the finest hotel.”
“…Please don’t worry about your lack of education. You do write a very nice letter and I think you have beautiful handwriting. So many people write so fast, I have difficulty reading what they have written. And the older I get, the more important seem the things of the heart and the things of the head get more and more insignificant. Some of the most cultured and best informed people I have known have had very little or no time in school. I think one should always be a student with an open mind for new ideas and ways to improve himself and help those with who he comes in contact.”
Letter to “Zale” February 6th 1961
“…As to the photo, the only thing I have of recent date is this little “passport” photo and I hate to send it as they always make one appear like a criminal. In general I have found pictures very deceiving. I have seen pictures that represented people to be actually ugly and then when I saw them, I thought they were beautiful. And in other cases it have been the other way around. I would be happy for your kindness in sending a picture and will send this little one if you insist but I am sure it will give the wrong impression. I have had very disappointing experiences. People naturally expect me to be nice and neat like my letters, but I will always be awkward and ungainly in appearance. I am too thin and bald in front. I always try to be nice to every one, but I never count too much on anything until people have a good look at me…”
Letter to “Christal” December 31 1959
“…Did I tell you that I indulge in mountain climbing and distance running? In a week or two, I want to run over to my daughter’s. This is 8 miles from here. I hiked over once, in an hour and a half, but I had to run the last mile to make it in this time. The last part is through the city streets and I imagine those who see me think I’m nuts. But I’ll go early or late so fewer people will be on the streets.”
Skip to Henry’s wife – An Interlude
Catch up here – Henry in his own words…
Henry…prophet, my patron uncanonized saint, ultimate paragon, exemplar extraordinaire, genuine eccentric, unpretentious, wholehearted, anomalous, novel, exceptionally uncommon, prodigious hero of mine.
God blessed us all to know him through you Elsa. The rare pay a higher price than most. Of course, you know this intimately. The common think it can and should be avoided. “Be kind to space people” as Henry would say. end of sermon.
And the older I get, the more important seem the things of the heart and the things of the head get more and more insignificant.
I’m with Henry on this one.
Hey, Elsa…
What was your grandma’s chart like? I’m wondering what she was like and how she and Henry interacted. I hope I’m not being too nosy.
XOXO
I always love (and feel slightly wistful while) reading Henry’s letters, but the letter to Zale in ’61 moved me beyond words.
I like that you have a New Year’s letter in here 🙂
Ah, Henry… Gotta love that man!
“Please don’t worry about your lack of education..(and all the rest of that paragraph)
What a sweetheart!! I could eat him up. Wouldn’t you fall completely head over heels with someone so sensitive? Quirky and compassionate. Thinking of the other person, putting her at ease, and valuing what is real.
I’ll bet he could really see the beauty in other people, the beauty deep down. His simple, poetic words always make me cry.
I would so make him a delicious vegetarian meal and organic pie with good, tasty coffee. 🙂
Isn’t Henry just proof that people have all the wrong ideas about Capricorn? What a wonderful human being.
I had a dream about Henry last night. Actually, it was you, Elsa, you were doing a handstand. I asked you “how do you do it?” You talked me through it and said, “Henry taught me this, he said the key to it was being in the moment and nowhere else but in the headstand.
Hm. You were also gigantically tall, lol. I think this picture triggered my 12th House Neptoon last night, cos I have no idea if you can stand on your head–though I wouldn’t be surprised if you could!
dude i walk every day at least 4 hours in the morning for aries and before sunset for libra. i feel more like the main character from an anime than a real person. i have feel like beastman from x-men. human but kind of primal but very much cultured but neither nor. i will try handstands, i never knew how to work out my arms in a natural fashion that wouldn’t hurt my meridians. i can feel the invisible magnetism. it’s the center-self, more motherly wisdom.
if there’s one more thing i could please add. i will thoroughly use your grandpy as a guardian archetype. i have never read someone so close to me but who has gone the distance. i never knew who i was until maybe today. i’m going to be a jack of all trades. master of none. no-one but myself. power is a burden. it breaks it bends. i try my best but other’s can’t. they degenerate and forget.