D O C U M E N T 1 6 1 N O V E M B E R 1 9 2 3 1 5 7
Warm regards to all three of you from your
Albert.
Tell Laue that he should announce the colloquium again with me, also that I ap-
prove of his letter re. the Einstein Tower, that is, to Dr.
Freundlich.[13]
161. To Betty Neumann
[Leyden,] 27 November 1923
Dear Betty,
Your little letter pleased me very much, as always, and then some. I would have
long since come back if everything to do with it wasn’t so complicated. In my case,
of course, the simplest things become complicated because so many people are
meddling, with good intentions. My friend
Ehrenfest[1]
had all sorts of trouble
keeping the ever-hungry hyenas of the press away from me. You’re quite right with
your observation about destiny. One has to skirt so laboriously people’s sensitive
sphere and yet see to it that one’s own isn’t too painfully upset. Thus, life goes by
in fleeting half-measures. Meanwhile, I’ve been working recklessly on a
theory[2]
—a bit of flight from life is always a part of it. The geometry you are grap-
pling with isn’t as easy as you might think, either, even if it does only concern the
connection of a couple of
points.[3]
About the tea with my wife, I have meanwhile already received reports from her.
She praises you—one has to give her that. As concerns the Russian woman, I saw
her fleetingly a single time after a concert. She proved to have unusual but not bad
taste, in that she has attached herself to old
Itelson.[4]
He is also taking nice care of
her, though; I’ll tell you about that in person.
Things seem to be very lively where you are, but the unacknowledged purpose
of your trip ran up against little B. N.’s hard head. I hope very much still to meet
you in this comical widow’s mood in Berlin. You are so good and you let me forget
the weight of existence a little, at least for a couple of hours. I’m looking forward
to that, in that I am trying to acquire some of your mischievous worldly wisdom.
Cordial regards to Uncle and Aunt
Mühsam,[5]
whom I’m very eager to see
again, but more fondly to you, from your
A. Einstein.