At the Round House Cafe in Cambridge, I had lunch with a friend, Tom Wolksi, a local veterinarian. At the next table was a neighbor (I think she would prefer not to have her name used.) She was a good friend of Florence, she walked down the road many times during the summer to see Florence, she knew where all her gardens and flowers here, and she said Florence was generous with her recipes, including her famous Rhubarb Pie. “Many people won’t share their recipes,” she said, but Florence did, and she told her the secret of her Rhubarb Pie was that she put an egg in it before she baked it.
I invited her to come and see Red her sheep, she apologized for not visiting sooner and greeting us. She missed Florence, she said, she was a good friend and a lot fun. I enjoy my neighbor, she is a strong woman, she looked right at the camera and almost defied me to take a photo. She asked for help in opening her juice, and I hope she comes by to see us.
I used to ridicule chickens, and I was chastised by some gentle chicken lovers, and then I realized that I didn’t even dislike them, I was just being a smart-ass. My hens are living without Strut, their beautiful but officious and aggressive male guardian. They seem to be doing well without Strut, they move around freely, sleep later, lounge around more in the dirt holes they dig to keep cool. They are gentle and industrious fixtures on the farm, and if I don’t love them, I am increasingly fond of them. If humans behaved as industriously as chickens and did as little harm, we would be living in an improved world.
At the beginning of every month, I report on contributions as compensation for my website and photography, both of which remain free. The creative world is changing, and writers and artists are increasingly asked to promote themselves and seek new revenue to keep doing their work. I was once quite uncomfortable asking for contributions, now am not. I see them as compensation for the blog, it’s maintenance and for my photography. Some people contribute regularly, others when they can. This is, of course, up to you. If the blog and the photos are valuable to you, consider paying them for them – the new order.
Blogs and social media outlets are expensive to maintain. I am also undertaking a new podcast. In order for these things to be free at a time publishing revenue has changing radically, I decided to ask for compensation for the time and equipment involved. The most frequent response was “what took you so long?” I met with a writer yesterday who came to me for advice, and she was complaining bitterly about the old order, about her declining royalties and dropping income due to e-books. “I love the old way,” she said,”I love paper books. I don’t want to change.” She doesn’t want to do a blog, she hates Facebook, she doesn’t want to share her life.
I got a bit exasperated. I told her directly that nobody cares what she wants. I don’t, and neither does the rest of the world. I wasn’t telling her my struggle story, I didn’t need to hear hers. We change or we fade away and become irrelevant. I do not care to become irrelevant. We all love paper books and if we wish, we can buy them. If you wish to be a writer, I suggested to her, you will stop whining and get a blog up. I have trouble with whining, I always have hated whining, all the more so now, because it seems to be the national song. I am sympathetic to everyone who struggles, and that includes many of the people reading this, but whining does not work when it comes to changing lives and being creative.
The contributions are important. They pay for Web design and fees, podcast storage, the repair of lenses and computer equipment, cable and software. They mean I can keep the blog free, improve it, share my stories in different formats. Contributions go to compensate me for the writing, time and operation of the blog and the photography. I see them as a voluntary subscription fee, and I see that blogs are beginning to bring revenue to creatives all over the country. It is okay to get paid for your work. I pay for the work I use and enjoy. I thank you for them. The contributions last month ranged from $300 to $3, and they were all welcome. I thank you. They are all affirmations to me, they encourage me to be creative and work hard.
