Howard is a doctor, marathon runner and author. He has written two non-fiction books, My Father’s Compass (2007) and Raft (2009). Carrots and Jaffas (2014) is his first novel. His latest novel is A Threefold Cord (Hybrid, 2107)
Book Giveaway for Indigenous Literature Week: Raft, by Howard Goldenberg
Thank you for your succinct response,which I confess, had me puzzled for a while.
While masterly in its conciseness – consisting as it did/does of but one character – your response stimulated large thought.
The sole character in your letter was the symbol used in mathematical notation to express “greater than”, as in 4 is greater than 3. Such data are useful to know and a reminder will never go astray.
Was there an additional
significance to your letter, I wondered, that I might be missing?
It came to me then that you’d written “greater than” at the head of the page. Your lonely symbol, pregnant with import, said much: “Thus spake LOVE.
Greater than all that might follow, greater than anything below, greater than all is love.”
Cathy Love yours is a message for all time and most pointedly for our own bleeding time.
While aware that my poor response to your broad enlightenment is inadequate, I know that all (“everything below”) is less than love.
howardgoldenberg 
Sent from my iPad
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Dear cathy
Thank you for your succinct response,which I confess, had me puzzled for a while.
While masterly in its conciseness – consisting as it did/does of but one character – your response stimulated large thought.
The sole character in your letter was the symbol used in mathematical notation to express “greater than”, as in 4 is greater than 3. Such data are useful to know and a reminder will never go astray.
Was there an additional
significance to your letter, I wondered, that I might be missing?
It came to me then that you’d written “greater than” at the head of the page. Your lonely symbol, pregnant with import, said much: “Thus spake LOVE.
Greater than all that might follow, greater than anything below, greater than all is love.”
Cathy Love yours is a message for all time and most pointedly for our own bleeding time.
While aware that my poor response to your broad enlightenment is inadequate, I know that all (“everything below”) is less than love.
Love
Howard
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