Richard Lee's Letter from November 1, 1982

Letter postmarked November 1, 1982
from Long Beach, CA

...and a page of calligraphy

Dear Daralee--

I have been wanting to tell you about your last letter: it was splendid, fine, full of all kinds and bits and pieces of information about you and your present whereabouts and your quest and your search...... Yes, it was most welcome news, all of it.

But now we are on the threshold of winter, are we not? When days get longer, and longer, and better and better, and grayer and.... Well, I like this season very much. Except in the early early morning when I have to go out to run in ElDorado Park, and it is cold-cold, and damp-damp. Even the birds fly with one eye closed against the falling fog. But enough of all this complaining. I love it. At least I do once I get warmed up enough to move.

I wonder if you are working at the Broadway now during its annual calamity [holiday] sale? You sound to me to have a very active life without being at the Broadway too, but then could they survive the season without you? You might ask them that sometime.

Now that you have gone from here [CSULB], I can't find anyone from your class around anymore. David Alvin is probably the most famous one of you right now. He is the composer and performer of the Blasters. He and his brother [Phil]--well, they are famous. They are also very, very talented and interesting musicians.

But then so are you in your own way, aren't you? You are a sensitive poet, a fine photographer. I especially enjoy visual puns, like that DERAIL: ORANGES one [of the Sunkist packinghouse]. And the store front [from Little Tokyo in Los Angeles]. And the garden. Yes, they are nice photographs.

So what else is new? Nothing really. I enjoy hearing from you, knowing that things are well. Actually you sound happier now that you have left this campus. That is nice to hear. Well, it may be a bit of a blow to one's academic ego, but one should[n't] have an academic ego to begin with, should he? You are better off there in Orange and in Oranges.

My eye falls on what you wrote in your letter: In emptiness there is good and no evil. And that is true, that is right. It may in fact be all of God that I know anything about, and it is enough, more than enough, because it is everything. So aren't you the beautiful one to have quoted it to me on this gray, damp Saturday afternoon? Yes. Yes, you are.

Love,

richard

Oh, sorry about them [California] Angels [baseball team]. Sorry. Next time? Sure. Why not?

And I copied out something from the Tao-te-Ching for you.

calligraphy from Tao te Ching by RELEE