Letter to Rahne

[x-kylun.livejournal.com]

Dear Rahne,

I hope this letter does not come as too much of a surprise--it is simply that I have been reminded often of our brief conversation on the journals before I left, and how I hoped I would like Scotland.  I thought you might like to know that I do, very much.  My father has been taking me around Edinburgh, which he knows well from his years with the postal service.  I think I might find it confusing (though not so much so as New York) if I had come here on my own, but seen through his eyes it is a lovely and fascinating place.  He is very proud of its history--I thought at first that such pride might be something we have in common, but it is . . . more difficult than I thought.  I do not know how to speak of my order's history without . . . I do not want him to think that I am dismissing Edinburgh, or boasting.  But I do not know how to answer his tales of the tenth century with my own tales which date back millennia earlier without sounding boastful.  It is troubling.

My mother, on the other hand, has taken it upon herself to introduce me to the Scottish countryside, and that has been an unalloyed pleasure.  The mountains lack only snow to feel like home, but the spring and the new green have their own loveliness, and the sunsets here are an exaltation; matched perhaps, but by no means exceeded by those at the monastery.  Today we are going to Loch Ness; I think she is joking when she speaks of the monster, but after the life I have led I make no assumptions.

I hope that you and all at the school are well.

Kylun