Helo Mei,

    This is your long lost friend from Crockett California. Do you 
still remember me? I know I have been quite bad for not responding to 
your letters earlier and I want to appologise for being so delinquent. 
I hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive me for my lengthy 
delay and that we can begin to mend any hard feelings that may exist. 
It has been very heavy on my mind the fact that I have not written 
back for some time and I have taken this free time at work to so. I 
want to let you know Mei that you had every reason to be a bit angry 
with me and I do not feel that your last response was motivated out of 
ego or anything other than the most honest desire to want to know what 
had been going on to cause my delay.

     Before I go on theough,to let you know what has been 
happenoing,I want to wish you the very best during this Holiday season 
and I am hoping that this coming year brings you the very best of 
happiness and good fortune.

     How have you been Mei? How are work and your friends these days? 
Have been doing anything interesting or exciting recently? I know that 
there are some things that I have always admired about you, and that 
is your sinceruty and honesty. I think if times hadn't changed for me 
as they hav in the past year it certainly would have been a real 
pleaure to have met you. YOu mentioned that you had made some 
temporary plans to come and visit. And that would have been very 
nice.  This past year has meant some significant changes in my life 
and I must say that they are interesting to say the least. My 
involvement with music and computers has kept me very busy. I have 
been giving seminars at colleges on the use of computers and music 
composition andn have been sponsored by some software companies. I've 
also been involved with many folks in this area and I am finding that 
my days are quite full with projects always going on and lots to do. 
It is a lot of fun and someday I hope that I can be involved to the 
point of not haviong to work for another company eight hours a day.

     But now I would like to take some time to let you know whay I 
have not written for a while. Basically Mei I had grown weary of 
correspondence over seas. I certainly enjoyed writing to you for the 
time that we had. In fact of all the ones that had written to me i can 
honestky tell you from my heart Mei that you are by far the most 
sincere and caring. You know Mei I had received many many letters from 
people in other countries. I had no idea that a correspondence project 
would take on such dimensions. I was getting letters form no less that 
250 people from all over Asia. And I would read every letter and 
respond back personlly to each one. But it was traking all my time 
Mei. I don;t think it is easy to understand how much effort that can 
take by one person to do that. I really kept it up as long as I could. 
And my original motivation was definately sincer. i was looking for 
that life time partner to enjoy and share the gifts of this good 
earth. But I had no idea that a simple add would bring so much 
response. The difficulties I think are obvious. How does one determine 
who is who and what is what after a while. And I don't think that this 
level of response means that I am any sort of special person. I 
beleive it is just the nature of this type of thing. There are so many 
of us looking for a good mate. every one of us wants and needs love 
ion our life. There is no mystery about that. Love is a basic 
ingredient that can determine whether our lives feel happy and 
fulfilled or are lonely and empty. And as much as I have always 
fantasised about the nature of love, the deisre for it's spontanaety 
and happening when we least expect it, the reality , as I have found 
is that finding a good loving partner is something that takes much 
work and effort. Real adult love is many times not something that 
happens out of a chance meeting or twist of fate. It really seems now 
that the joy of love is something we really have to work hard at to 
find and preserve. Ther are so many of us who want such a thing. Yet 
wanting is not enough to make it happen. There are so many factors  
involved which we must consider with both our heart and mind along 
with much effort if we are to truly find a love that is long term and 
fulfilling. To be sure I am a sincer person who wants to share this 
life with someone wholesome and true. And in the United States my 
honesty desire to meet a woman of good quality seems to be ending in 
ruin time after time. Thsi is a complex society here in the U.S. We 
have a variety of traditions and cultures which make the likelyhood of 
dissimilarity more common than we may prefer. AS for me I find that I 
am more "old fashioned" in my values than I even realised myself a 
year or so ago. And with the confusion that comes with a society in 
constant change, things like gender equality have really given a lot 
of people a sense of vaguness as to who they are and the proper roll 
they have in relationships. I was looking for an old fashioned 
tradional type of woman. And that really seemed to be a lost cause 
here in California, as far as I could tell. So I began to look towards 
more tradiotinal societies, such as Asia, to find my mate. I think 
though with the overwhelming desire on the part of so many to come to 
the U.S. for it's affluence that many of those who write to me were, 
in fact, priomarily motivated by the poassiblity of personal gain then 
they were to find a stable loving relationship. The exception of 
course was you Mei. And I say this in all honesty. Of all the ones 
that wrote to me you were by far the most sincere and honest of all. I 
could trell from the very first leter that you wrote to me. I remember 
that you were concerned that maybe you were being to "wordy" or 
revealing in your letters. Or that maybe you were motivated by pride. 
But what i found in all your letters and that sweet little tape you 
sent to me was a woman who was honestky sincer and genuiine in all 
respects. I can stikll 
how  you would describe your thought s while riding on the bus in your 
first letter. You know I really liked that. It was just the very fsact 
that you would describe your thoufghts and not relegate your letters 
to saying things like" well I enjoy tenniss and rap music", if you 
know what I mean.

    OOPS  next day.

    I just returned form having been very busy at work and am now 
continuing this letter. Let's see well where was I.

    Any way Mei. I do feel bad about not writin gin such a long time 
and I hope you can forgive my delay. It looks yhough that I have 
finally settles down a bit with a nice gal. Beleive it or not she is 
from the U.S.. I feel very fortunate that this has happened but it 
sure took a lot of heart ache and down right effort. Nothing is 
perfect. Even a relationship after it starts takes a lot of effort. 
But with this holiday season upon us I want to wish you the very very 
best this comong year Mei. And even though i may have become a distant 
memory, I want to let you know that I never forgot about you. If fact 
i think of you quite often. I thionk of how your woprk is going anf 
things in your private life. i wonder if things are generally good or 
bad. I wonder if there is anything thgat you are interested in that we 
vcould share through our letters to each opther. And to be honest I 
would really like to hear from you again if it does not seem too 
untimely to ask.

    Since i have the time right now at work and the opportunity to 
write to you, I would like to best of this time while I have it. So 
I'll just ramble on a bit if you don;t mind. 

    You know Mei, I have learned so much over the past year with 
respect to marriage after all the work involved with the 
correspondence  project. It seems so funny to hear me say that after 
all this work the real aspect is if we are personally happy or not. I 
mean that is so much of a more important thing than marriage itself. 
Yet  we are taught from when we are young that ourn personally 
happines depends on our involvement with other people, giving to, 
receiving from, or relating with them in some form or anbother. And 
all this leads us to beleive that marriage is nsome magic cure for the 
perceived other option of totl loneliness. I think I can tell you in 
all honmesty that having close ties with other is certainly very 
fulfillijng. in fact having someone special who loves us and we love 
them does bring about a peace in our life that is hardd to put into 
words. Yet a loving  relationship has really nothing to do with the 
institution of marriage. Deepseated love  resides in our hearts and 
because it is so primal transends all institutions or traditions. And 
liove can happen in so many mystrios ways. i think the one thing that 
I prefer about not getting involved with an instituional image of 
marriage is that it can be so confining. What well rounded person has 
not made good and wholesome aquaintances that in their life that are 
very fulfilling and provide energy and satisfaction in their life. 
Evenm though I feel that a comomitment to a person should be 
accompanied by a real form of outward expresiion such as keeping 
ourselves sexually pure for them. I still feel, for example, that even 
in my present relationship that it would be unfair to use that as a 
reason to dismiss all comunication with otheres. In other words no 
matter where i am or what i am odoinmg i owill always like to write to 
you Mei when i can. I wouldn't think it fair that one person should 
LORD over another and totally restrict all other realtions they have 
with others. I am aware tyhat jealousy is a real emotion. Yet I am 
alos aware that love implies trust. So no matter where i am Mei-- 
let's keep our communication open ok? Writing to each opther, at 
l;east for me is a very ful;filling experience. You havre taught me 
much in your humble letters about a c culture that is foreign to me, 
yet is filled with great things. And as the two of us walk down our 
own little private paths we can at least share our experiences with 
each other ok? I really beleive that writing to each opther wouold be 
q continued area of joy in our lives. There are so many things we can 
talk about and learn form each other even though ewe are far apart. 
Does that sound ok? I certainly wish that we had had the chance to 
meet but fortune did not have that in the cards for us this time. 
Maybe some day in the future a door of fortune will open up for us in 
this area. And who know how the tide will turn? I just really beleive 
in my heart tjhat a person  like you is someone I WOULD LIKE TO KEEP 
in tougch with. With the world as it is th ese days and so many 
uncertainties, the more things that can bring good and wholesome joy 
to our lives the better for us all. Ids that ok Mei? 

    Well i guess that is about enough rambling on ofor now. I am 
really llooking forward to hearing form youb again. i hope that this 
Holiday season really brings some joy to your heart.And even if things 
are not go9iong so good i wqould really like to hear from you. 
Remember , you talk discuss vertaually anything you feel likwe wqith 
me. I am interested in many many things, from plotics, to realtions to 
life in general.

    God bless you Mei. And have a wonderful day, today and every day.

                             Sincerely

                                       DFonald.
anything other than sincereneess and wholesome value. It is truly a 
shame now that we did not have the chance to meet. During the peoriod 
of our last corresponce I was becoming simple burnt out on the weight 
of writing all the time. I found I had to take a break from the 
project and do something elase for a while. But the experience has 
left me more mature and thankful to know that in this world there are 
people(though few and far between)n who have courage, good moral value 
and sincere hearts. To be quite hoinest with you. I am finding that I 
have had to put the thought of marriage somewhat in the background as 
I begin to enjoy the blessings of knowing those very very few who have 
come into my life, through correspondence, that I can see are truly 
good and honourable. If I may say to you at this time Mei, and if you 
are not still angry with me I would like to tell you that you are one 
of the very very few whom I truly admiore and appreciate. You cannott 
imagine how well you stand out among the others. I guess it's a case 
of having to write to a lot of frogs before you find that princess. 
And Mei, it is true, we may never ever actually meet. Our lives may 
find always and forever worls apart and separated by great distances. 
But I can honelstly tell you now that i will never ever forget you and 
will always have a warm feeling in my heart for the one who was always 
so sincere. I am truly sorry for not having written to you sooner and 
I hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive me. I just needed 
a lenghty break. Now these days are more organised and settled. Yet I 
must admit though that the biggest surprise to come along has happened 
to me recently. A local gal has come intop my life who is spending a 
lot a free itme with me. We do in fact share quite a bit in common. 
And even though the relationship is not " picture perfect" it is still 
quite growing. To be honest with you I am actually quite amazed to 
find that I met someone here in California who was not "run of the 
mill". Like I said, the relationship is not perfect but I think none 
really is. Ther will always be some differnces that add to the nature 
of GROWTH.  But this invlovement came after many many months of 
dillegent effort. It did not come easily. And if there is one thing I 
can offer to you now it is simple the few words of " keep up the ggod 
work Mei" You are a wonderful and sincere woman. And you are certainly 
woth the best man that you can possibly find. But seek we all must 
untill we find. Keep your heart storng and may the good LOrd bless you 
in oh so many ways this new year and for many many years to come. I 
honestky consider you my good friend even fthough from afar. My waords 
are genuine.















come. I 
honestky consider you my good friend even fthough from