The Three Christs of Ypsilanti - Milton Rokeach [126]
My dear Joseph:
I was very pleased to receive your letter of November 2, and I want to thank you for it. It is, of course, all right for you to regard yourself as a citizen of the world, and I have no objections to your saying so. However, I do object to your statement that Ypsilanti State Hospital is an English stronghold. First, it is not accurate to call it a stronghold and second, Ypsilanti State Hospital is not English. Ypsilanti State Hospital is an American hospital. It is supported by American funds and we do not receive any support, financial or otherwise, from England. I think that since you are a reasonable man who is getting better and better, you will recognize this as the truth.
As for your remarks about attending church, it was not clear to me from your letter whether you were or were not attending church. Could you clarify this matter further for me?
You say in your letter: “As for my identity, I am what I am, God!” I certainly do not wish to dispute this but I do wish to dispute your statement that “you can depend” on the English to be with you. It is my opinion that since you have been in this hospital the English have not given you the hand that you so richly deserve.
All the preceding leads me to what I really want to tell you. You can depend on me to give you a hand.
Enclosed is a small token of my esteem for you. Please write me soon and I will write you again shortly.
Yours very truly,
O. R. Yoder, M. D.
Joseph answers the very same day:
My dear Dr. Yoder:
In answer to your last letter I wish to thank you for it! I, withal, want to thank you for the .25.
I wish to thank you, also, for your agreeing with me that I am a citizen of the world!
I am, also, gleeful that you do not dispute the fact that I am God!
I do not admit that the English are not with me:—they are with me, and I do so know it!
The proof of my having attended church service is enclosed in this letter. It is a program, which they give you at the church.
Write to me when you can, please.
Yours sincerely
Joseph Cassel
P. S. As for your offer to give me a hand … I thank you for your offer. But, remember, I am saying nothing against the English:—I am for them, day and night.
November 20. Joseph is now going to church regularly, two or three times a week, to Protestant and Jewish services.
November 28. “I don’t want to say anything against the Catholic religion,” Joseph says, “but the Protestant religion has done a great deal for the world. It has given more freedom. You don’t have to confess yourself to any priest—just to God.” He adds that after the Lutheran service they had served coffee and cookies. “This is a great thing. You never get that from the Catholic religion.” Henceforth he makes frequent references to the refreshments he gets at Protestant and Jewish services.
Today Joseph writes an unusually lengthy letter to Dr. Yoder in which another facet of his relationship to his authority figure is revealed: he discusses things he never discusses with us. The last part of the letter reads:
But Dr. Yoder, of all the things I asked of you, I got but one value, and that was when I told you I had lost my sex. You said that I ought not to worry, and to let nature take its course and be natural and be a man. Of this I thank you. I am natural, and it has done me much good, my listening to you. Thank you. In the meantime, good night. I am, your friend,
Joseph Cassel
December 2
My dear wifie:
I do so want to thank you for the nice letter and dollar, which you have sent me. Thank you for your asking money for me from Dad. I hope he sends some.
Too bad about your blood pressure; I hope you get well …
Joseph Cassel, your loving husband
December 5. Joseph gets a letter from Dr. Yoder asking him, among other things, to elaborate on having “lost his sex.” Joseph replies: “As for having lost my sex, I should write, rather, that my sex is getting better, every day in every way.”
December 8. Joseph complains of a pain in his stomach. “It’s just a