Lipton’s Journal/February 14, 1955/588

P, I believe, signifies part, the part of the whole, the initiator, the petrifaction of an essentially continuous process. P is thus part, separation, definition of what is a whole. Thus port, pact (a continuing process between nations) piss—the puh represents the grunt with which we begin to ssssssssss. Which is why when I cannot piss I turn on the water. The sss of the water lulls me into its condition. What characterizes me is that it is harder for me than for most to start and to stop—once moving I can be graceful, but I lack grace entirely for the start and stop which is why me personality is so staccato, why it is harder for me to sleep and harder for me to wake up than for most—bodies in motion tend to remain in motion, bodies at rest tend to remain at rest—that is our apperception of physics (Newton’s great insight) and society who pinnacle, elegance, rests upon the exercise of grace in precisely one’s starts and one’s stops. Elegant people rarely accomplish enormous amounts, but they are marvelous at cocktail parties which are total start and stop, and they are marvelous at moving from social convention to the introduction of emotion which is where I am totally inept, often rude in conversation, etc. So, p.