Dear Mr. Vidal

I'm currently reading Gore Vidal's memoir, Palimpsest, published in 1995. I can't imagine anyone having a more interesting life than his with his many personal, political, and literary connections. However, an interesting life must also include unhappiness different than that of an ordinary life. If there is no difference in the weight of unhappiness, there is a qualitative difference.

The thing about unhappiness in the context of an interesting life is that it has a sting that reminds a person that he or she is very much alive and that there is a discrepancy between where the person is and where the person wants to be.

The unhappiness in the context of the ordinary life is more like a case of having chiggers than having been stung. Chiggers have to be choked out, killed, suffocated, or covered by nail polish (the usual home remedy.) Then, the nail polish serves as a constant visual reminder of the ungoing assault. Of course there's the itching and the scratching, neither of which are particularly attractive for the scratcher or the observer.

Unhappiness in an interesting life resembles the sting of a bumblebee. A sting requires having the stinger removed and healing then can immediately begin.

One has to wonder about the accumulation of scar tissue at the site of the stinger, assuming that, as in real life, the person having an interesting life is stung more than once. Would that layer of scar tissue protect a person from future assaults or invert the pain at a deeper level rather than merely the surface level if the attack was by chiggers?

Perhaps, Mr. Vidal will provide the answer to that question before the last paragraph of his life.