Family Quote by John Hawley

Gratitude is doing double duty here: it signals decency while quietly asking the reader not to look too closely at what is being left unsaid. Hawley opens with a dutiful accounting of blessings - for a family of some size, "very good health generally" is no small thing - but the sentence immediately pivots into a careful hedge. "Generally" is the tell. It preserves the posture of thankfulness while making room for exceptions, troubles, or strains he does not want to name outright.

The second clause sharpens the subtext: "you may be sure me and my partner have quite enough to exercise our minds and occupy our attention". On the surface it's brisk stoicism, the old-fashioned equivalent of "we're busy". Underneath, it's a coded admission of stress. The phrase "quite enough" suggests an overload, and "exercise our minds" frames worry as respectable mental labor rather than complaint. It's a rhetorical strategy common in letter culture: offer reassurance to maintain social equilibrium, then hint at hardship in a way that invites empathy without demanding it.

The mention of "my partner" is also doing work. It's intimate but practical, pairing him with another adult as co-manager of whatever burdens are pressing in. Without a stated profession, the likely context is domestic: illness not severe enough to label, financial logistics, caregiving, property, or community obligations. Hawley sounds like someone who believes emotions should travel in plain clothes - gratitude up front, anxiety tucked into the margins, conveyed through workload rather than confession.