Letter I · On arriving late.

You are almost certainly arriving late. That is not a failure; it is the nature of the thing. This house was built, quietly, by people who had been looking for it for years before they admitted they were building it.

If you are arriving now — at thirty-eight, at fifty-two, at sixty-seven — you are arriving on time. On time for a house is not the same as on time for a startup or a semester. On time for a house is whenever you can no longer live without one.

Do not apologize for the timing. Sit in the room and let it hold you.