9905 Tenbrook Dr.

Silver Spring, MD 20901

3 January 2010

Its been three years since I last wrote an end of year-letter. A lot of change has kept life
too busy, and too chaotic, in the meantime. Longstanding difficulties in our marriage led
to Wendy and I separating, just two years ago this week. She and I as well as the kids,
have had our hands very full just learning to adjust to a new way of living. We all have
adapted well, I think, to a 50:50 custody situation. The kids are with me M-Tu nites
every week, with Wendy W-Th nites, and we alternate weekends. As long as the kids see
both of us a lot, they seem OK with things. Our divorce was finalized just a month ago.
The same week I closed on a house at the address above, where the kids and I can finally
settle into a permanent space (we just got totally moved out of our apt. this past week).
Permanent until Alexander is out of high school in June 2019 anyway.

Fire Island friends will know that we have been still taking the kids to Seaview
from 20 June-31 July the past two summers, by switching off my being with them for 2-3
weeks, then Wendy taking over for 2-3 weeks. Thats a piece of continuity amid all the
change that has been good for everybody. I have deeply appreciated the continued
friendship and support of folks out there, and its reassuring that nobodys felt pushed
into taking sides. The best thing about everything is that both Wendy and I have been
concentrated first and foremost on making things happen in whatever way is best for the
kids. And they seem to appreciate it, despite their mourning of a lost way of family life.

In March 2008, I received the news that Id gotten tenure at Franklin & Marshall
Collegea big relief in so many ways, but even more so since we had just separated a
few months earlier and were still in a lot of pain. I applied for sabbatical and was
approved for the 2008-09 academic year, to begin archival research for a new book
project, about Wilhelm Reichs bion experiments in Oslo, Norway in the late 1930s. This
is an episode of origin of life controversy, but Reich was also a famous psychoanalytic
student of Freud, an advocate of birth control and abortion reform, a Marxist who sought
to use dialectical-materialist ideas in biological research, and many, many other things.
So the story is a fascinating one. Reichs archives, at the Countway Library at Harvard
Medical School, only opened to scholars in Nov. 2007, so it seemed an opportune time to
begin this project, though Ive been interested in the story for many years. I spent quite a
few weeks in Boston at the Reich archives. But I also got a small Mellon grant to cover
travel to archives in Oslo, Norway for two weeks in April 2009. I felt fortunate to have
help from numerous scholars on this work, especially Hvard Nilsen and Nils Roll-
Hansen in Oslo. That made it possible to spend my time there much more productively.
Though I missed the kids terribly, in two weeks I was able to find most of what was
relevant for my book project. I have given two talks on this work at the History of
Science Society, and two more at the Wilhelm Reich Museum summer conferences, and
they were very well received. Theres a lot of interest, it appears.

On 1 July 2010, I begin a three year stint as Chair of the Dept. of Earth &
Environment at Franklin & Marshall. Im not a fan of administrative work, but the
department is in a very dynamic growth phase, so I hope this will be an opportunity to
have some influence on the future of the dept. and its programs. My colleague & current
chair Roger Thomas has been helping a lot this year, mentoring me about the ins and outs
of the job. Being chair will probably slow down my writing on the book, but well just
have to see about that. At least in the meantime I hope to get off an article on the bion
experiments to Isis or to Journal of the History of Biology. Meanwhile, I have applied for
a National Endowment for Humanities grant (still havent heard yet), to get the writing
started this summer, before the chairs duties expand to fill all available space.

In Sept. 2008, Rachel moved to Middle School and to the Takoma Park public
school just two blocks from Wendys house. Being very social, she made the transition
fairly easilyshe was happier right away to be in a bigger place with more potential
friends and had made several good friends within the first few months. She has done
very well academically, getting straight As several semesters (though relaxing & not
feeling like she has to make that the be-all, end-all of life). She scored off the charts as
they told us, on the state math exam at the end of her first year there, and so shes been
placed in algebra this fall in seventh grade. She has expressed to me that she doesnt
especially like math, but she appreciates the fact that shes good at it, and that this will be
a boon in future possible career endeavors. Shes joined the after-school Math-
Engineering Club and likes it so far. She tried out for a part in the school play last year
and was disappointed not to get in, but this year as a 7th grader she tried againfor Alice
in Wonderland. She got a small part, with which she was quite happy, a chance to ease
in and be fully part of the activity but without yet the pressure that might accompany a
larger role. Outside of school, she still loves her tap dancing class (now in the 4th year),
and two years ago began ballet in addition. She joined Girl Scouts in Fall 2008, which
she loves. Both are places where she can meet friends who arent necessarily also
schoolmates. We help with cookie sales. At twelve and a half, Rachel is very much on
the cusp of teenage. But I have a strong sense that shes well-grounded and may weather
the storms of the period pretty well.

Alexander took a summer Dance & Theater camp with Rachel for a week in
August 09. He loved it as much as she didmaybe even moreand one result was that
the teachers urged him to join Rachels tap dancing class because his abilities were so
evident. Both physical coordination and instincts as a performerneither a surprise to
those of us whove known his skits, jokes and dancing since he could walk and talk.
Whats new was his willingness to go public with his talents. He had a VERY happy,
successful second grade year at Oneness Family School 08-09, where he really came out
socially at a whole new level. Despite his unhappiness over our separation, he made
friendships as never before, especially an inseparable Gang of Three with his friends
Will and Justin. They did jokes, beatboxing, hip-hop, skits, and just about everything
else, both in school and on lots of weekend playdates, which still continue. Alexander
began to really excel in lots of sporting ventures, including after school basketball and
karate (he broke boards bare-handed within weeks). His ice skating really improved over
Christmas break 08, and hes been wanting to skate at every opportunity since, the only
one in the family to own his own skates at this point. In Fall 09 he joined a Saturday pee
wee flag football league with his school friend Will, and he really enjoyed it. Go Tar
Heels! Ho moved to public school as well, in Sept. 09 a year after Rachel, and having
matured so much socially during the intervening year, he made the transition a lot more
smoothly than any of us had expected. They always surprise you with their growth and
adaptability.

In their brother-sister relations, Rachel and Alexander are perhaps closer than
ever, from having supported each other so lovingly through all the difficulties associated
with the dramatic change in family life. Rachel had a couple months of grieving right
away, crying almost every night. Alexander, just turned seven then, was proud to be her
strong supporter, the one she could lean ona role reversal he loved. He dealt with
things differently. Perhaps being so much younger when we separated, he understood
less of what it all meant. It was a year later, around his eighth birthday in Feb. 09, when
he began to be angry at the world, at just about everything, but most of all at the fact that
all four of us never did things together anymore. A year into it, he was finally realizing
that things were not ever going to go back to the way they were. His anger went on in
fits and spurts for six months or more. Hes still a bit touchy about anything thats not
scrupulously fair. But since Fall, when his attention was focused on how quickly he was
able to make friends at the new Takoma Park public school (much quicker than he
expected, partly because of his range of new sports interests), his anger at life has
dissipated. He can be angry about too much homework on a given night, but generally he
really likes his schoolwork and is doing outstanding academically, especially in math and
science, his traditional strengths. Rachel at times needed he night at Girl Scouts, etc. to
get away from his crabbiness, and she said so. But on the whole, the way they have
lovingly helped each other negotiate all this new, scary territory has been heartwarming.

After a couple months of separation I began dating again. Within a month a

friend introduced me to Alison, with whom I very soon began to fall in love. She was
cautious about rebound effects (and Im no stranger myself, to paying attention for such
things). By summer of 2008 we were deeply in love. She has a daughter, Tamar, now 18
and in the college application process. So she understood a lot about parental priorities
without much having to be said on the subject. Alison also lives in Philadelphia, which
made my commuting life more complicated. But I have great respect for love and am not
inclined to look a gift horse in the mouth when, under such circumstances, I should get
lucky enough to meet a kindred spirit with maturity and adventurousness so soon into the
dating process. I was very strongly drawn to her almost immediately. We have been
through some significant ups and downs over the past year and a half. But our frank,
easy communication has helped us both overcome the fears and old pain that can be
triggered by really opening yourself up to another. She is a very considerate, caring
person who has lit up my life in a way Id forgotten I could feel.

I was nervous to introduce her to the kidsfor one thing really not wanting to
expose them to a series of people they might care for, only to lose them again. But after a
bit more than a year together, I felt things were solid and held my breath for the first
weekend when she came down to Silver Spring when I had the kids. Of course, they
liked each other right away. I was enormously relieved and happy about it. Their
relationship with Alison has developed slowly over the past nine months since her living
at a distance means they dont see her every week. But it has developed very steadily and
happilyespecially when they saw her playful side come out bouncing together on a
trampoline!

This was the 30th anniversary year for the formation of Students for Safe Energy,
in which I was involved, at SUNY Cortland. I was teaching my undergraduate course
this fall on Nuclear Weapons, Nuclear Power and Nuclear Waste Disposal, when I also
realized that it was 40 years ago this past Nov. that my 8th grade English teacher Miss
Vianese urged me to read Fail Safe and On the Beach. Talk about a moment of realizing
what impact a teacher can have on your life! Given the intense new promotional
campaign about nuclear energy as a panacea for global warming, I can only say I think
its still a horrific devils bargain, and urge you all my fellow citizens, to write your
congressmen constantly (the industry seems to have bought a lot of Senators), urging
them not to spend a dollar of taxpayers money on loan guarantees for the construction of
new plants. The industry seeks $180 billion in loan guaranteesmeaning that if they run
the projects so incompetently they could never make a profit, or never even complete
construction, you and I would be forced to pay for their carelessness while the executives
of Exelon and other nuclear utilities continue to live wealthy lifestyles like Wall Street
bankers, similarly not penalized in any way for their reckless behavior but instead
rewarded for it with bailouts you and I paid for. Every dollar not invested in nuclear
power could produce far greater reduction in carbon emissions invested instead in solar,
wind, or conservation. So every dollar invested in nuclear is a big net loss in carbon
reductions that could have been bought with that dollar. Nuclear Information &
Resource Service is a great place to get involved and/or stay informed about key votes
coming up on energy policy. So is Union of Concerned Scientists.

Enough for now, though obviously a lot more has happened in three years time.
But if I dont get this off quickly, the next load of obligations will keep me from sending
it again at all! I hope you have a happy, safe New Year, and stay focused on the things
most important in life.

Sincerely,

Jim Strick

PS Email me directly if you want some recent photos of the kids, of my nuclear
class in the control room at Limerick nuclear Power Plant, etc.