PJ: What do you think?
GG: I think I have written enough for now.
Dear Greg:
I've been tracking BR's tour. This evening you're in Phoenix (uggh); tomorrow you're in LA (uggh!). I can
imagine that seven gigs straight would be tiring. Do you mix up the sets, so you're not playing the exact
same thing at each show?
Last evening I watched a local rugby match and then came home and read your vigorous response to my
"challenging naturalism" note. The game and note were a perfect match.
One thing I like is that both of us believe that the other is mistaken about the nature of reality-much
more interesting than politically correct relativism. At the same time, I see naturalistic investigation as
complementary to theology, and you have said a few times that you are interested in seeing genuine
evidence that could lend support to the concept of God. So there's room for two guys to work.
Why did you go to graduate school, anyway? Now that it's behind you, what do you think of it?My Ph.D. dissertation defense was a bloodbath, mainly because no one on the panel knew what the
dissertation was about. My advisor had died a few months earlier. So the ad hoc committee and I argued
for two and a half hours over peripheral things. I hung tough and passed, but it was easily one of the worst
experiences of my life.
Overall, I'm pretty cynical about the academyespecially the side of it that ignores students in favor of
prestige and monetary awards.
Take care,
Preston
Dear Preston,
I have just returned to New York and I am fatigued. So fatigued, in fact, that the doctor has ordered three
days of bed rest. It appears as though I picked up a virus on the plane flight home because my immune
system was so worn out from seven shows in a row.
Yes, it is incredibly difficult to play that many shows in a row. I have a rule of three days on, one day
off, three days on, one day off, on tour. We broke that rule because I allowed it. I thought that so many
shows in one place might allow my body to heal each night because I didn't have to travel so much; we
played in Arizona, Colorado and California. It wore me out nonetheless.
I have changed my views significantly on Los Angeles. I recently bought a house with my mom for her
retirement. She moved back to our old neighborhood in the Valley, and now I stay there with her when I go
to LA. I used to hate LA, but now I love it. I think it is because I don't feel trapped there anymore. No one
can live there exclusively without growing tired of it. It is only because of my freedom to escape back to