Dear Brilliant Writers All:
So the 19-year old whiz kid begins tampering with my website and I love everything he does. It’s gorgeous. It’s smart. It’s stunning.
It's …me?
Maybe.
Then he (Eli) suggests we partner up together and he will do a video every week of me telling one of my Ram Dass stories or my Eckert stories or an Alan Watts story or even one of my own escapades. Then, I’d add a prompt that I would write and get ya’ll to write.
He says we’ll charge three hundred dollars for a year subscription and he will handle all the PayPal stuff.
And the best part is - the part I totally get excited about - is that it will create the kind of writing community that I have been trying to make happen for EVER!!!!
He says people will write more if they are paying for it and they will comment more if they are paying. And I am in. Cissy is on board. Eli and I make a few videos which he makes look soooo gorgeous!!
But then I start to feel ambivalent.
How do I charge for what I was giving away free? How do I justify the switch? How do I say ‘hey everyone here’s the blog you were contributing to for nothing; now pay’?
I take a walk in Gay Head and my right brain and my left brain have a little sit down.
I keep asking myself:
Am I in business or is this my spiritual practice with a bit o profit? Do I really want more?
I love my life. I love my solitude. I could see that his plan was going to up the ante to a larger forum. More people. More workshops. More money.
More-More-More is not where I am now.
I called Eli (as in Dagostino) and said, “I can’t do it.”
So all of those little notices saying a big surprise is coming are moot now. The child genius that he is took down the blog and changed the site. I’m keeping the visual changes and keeping the old way.
If you go to chilmarkwritingworkshop.com it’s the same - but it looks different. Better.
So thank you my darling ones for your patience.
Please - please - please contribute to the blog. Prompts resume again next week.
I'm asking you a favor. No, I’m begging you to make comments to each other. You know how good it feels when someone flips over your words. Flip for each other. Please!
And maybe I’ll get to work with you this spring, summer or fall at a workshop. Yes???