A Matter of Style

Re “Vreelands: Happiness is Simply a Matter of Style” (by Tia Gindick, Oct. 28): In a time of tackiness involving such matters as starvation in Africa, of massive unemployment throughout the United States, and a Tent City in Los Angeles, the Vreelands (Tim and Nancy) seem to have discovered, God bless ‘em, style in their gowns, dinner parties, and “charming little bibelots” to be more laudatory than chic.

It seems a pity to me that they, and others like them, do not or cannot acknowledge the value system of Robert Oppenheimer who once said: It is style which complements affirmation with limitation and with humility; it is style which makes it possible to act effectively, but not absolutely; it is style which enables us to find harmony between the pursuits of ends essential to us, and the regard for the view, the sensibilities, the aspirations of others; it is style which is the deference that action pays to uncertainty; it is above all style through which power defers to reason.

G.J. DuKOSKA

Studio City