I do not believe animals are anything like us. I do not believe they are my babies. I do not believe they think like us, or in our words, or with our feelings. Most of all, I love the mystical part of an animal, the part we can never grasp, the instincts we can never know, the feelings and emotions far beyond our simple imaginations. This is the place we can never really go, but which I feel is there, all the time.
I’m happy to tell you that Connie Brooks of the Battenkill Bookstore, Cambridge, N.Y., my bookstore will be selling signed and personalized copies of the “Going Home” video for $5 plus tax and shipping. The video will be offered first to people who have pre-ordered “Going Home” or who order it in the next few weeks (518 677-2515). Then it will be available to anyone who wishes to buy it at the same price. For details, call Connie at 518 677-2515 or e-mail her at [email protected].
I will sign them in any way you wish, of course. I’m glad Connie is doing this. There was a substantial demand, and I am very happy so many people are pre-ordering their books from her. We are over 300 and I have a hunch we might make it to 500. The Cambridge, N.Y., Post Office is excited, their biggest package ship ever. Logistically, Connie thinks the best way to do it is to make the first copies available to people who have purchased or are going to purchase the book. Then it will be available to everyone. Anyone can order it, of course, when they wish. She will offer the details, in person or on her website. The cost will be $5 plus tax and shipping.
The Battenkill Bookstore is an independent bookstore, and this is a great new direction for them, so thanks for your support, on my behalf and hers.
I’ve appointed Lenore the Smile Video Poster Girl and Spokesperson. We offer her first Smile Video – a new Bedlam Farm feature to counteract the Fear Machine’s Gloom and Doom reports – which is about my trying to teach her a trick. My dogs do not do tricks, unless you count selling books. Teaching a Lab a trick has its own special challenges and rewards. Lenore is all heart and has the soul of a warrior. The trick thing…well…But I was sure smiling. Come and smile too. Simon and the chickens make cameo appearances.
Had a great meeting at Mannix Marketing yesterday with Brendan LaRock, Chris Archibee and Steve Keator. I want to re-design the website, incorporate some of the new and dynamic elements – Facebook, YouTube, the videos and photography. We want to keep the Farm Journal Page the same and simplify it. Mockups in a month, and I’ll show you.
I want the core of the blog – The Farm Journal – to stay the same, but I also want to move forward, keep the blog relevant, graphically dynamic and exciting. I might put an ad up, but I will not charge for the blog. Mannix is great to work with and I always feel heard, challenged and understood. They are very much responsible for the growth of this site – the Farm Journal page alone is getting about 20,000 hits a day, and the page got more than 150,000 views last week. That doesn’t count Facebook – roughly 40,000 visits a day – and Twitter. The blog has been nothing but rewarding for me, my writing and my life. Thank you all.
__
As I expected, there were lots of messages about my health care decision – see below, much of it from nurses and health care professional urging me to get regular lab work and other tests done. One nurse wrote: “You need to get your cholesterol and colon and blood sugar checked regularly. A good friend of mine has cancer.”
These messages are well meaning, but I would urge people not to waste their valuable time sending them. I know people with cancer too (I am a hospice volunteer and know many people with cancer – almost everyone knows someone with cancer), and I’m having lunch with one today. My decisions are not an argument, and while these people mean well, they are using fear to try and frighten people – me – into doing things they may or may not want to do. Good intentions are not always good intentions. Fear is not the process by which I will deal with my health and my aging and my life. And death. I might get cancer. I might get hit by a bus, or get run over by an ATV. Those possibilities will not be the foundation of my life and the decisions I make.
The idea that we as individuals can make our own decisions about life – or animals, for that matter – sometimes gets lost in a culture that values absolutism and certainty, and the idea that we know what is best for others. I can only say I would never write anyone and tell them how to make decisions about their health. Everyone has to make the choices that are best for them, and I hope I will always support people who cam come to their own minds and, like Henry David Thoreau, live their own lives. Self-determination does not mean making decisions that others feel are wise and safe, but always, always, making your own.
I will continue to share my thoughts about this process, as I am committed to being open on the blog. But I won’t argue my life with other people. Or let other people tell me what to do.
