Thirteen months ago I came right up to the edge of launching a Patreon page, so I could start “monetizing” the blog by taking donations. I even wrote a little introduction titled “The upturned fedora.” I wrote:
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A friend did me a huge favor. I knew he would do it; he’s that good a friend. And when I gave him money for doing the favor, he made it clear that he had had no expectations of payment. I am 100% sure he would have done it for free with no complaints. That’s the man he is.
I am the same, in my own way. I love to put words together, and I put these words out to the world because I want to share. I have always been on the “production” side of things, producing newscasts and newspapers and books and songs, and the sales side of things never interested me. I know if I worked hard enough at sales I could probably make more money than I do, but it definitely would be work, because my heart is in making words sing, and as much as I know people are willing to pay for singing words, I have little passion for the dance of reaching for golden rings.
Still, I know that money is a valuable tool for things like eating and maintaining my shelter, and so I occasionally remind you that I have written books that I think you might gain a little something from, should you care to purchase any of them. And now I have set up a Patreon account for people who would like to support these musings in a more material way. For now I’m not really offering “exclusive” content for my patrons, but I will give them free copies of any future books that come down the line — and the more patrons I have, the more resources I will have to produce more music — which is what singing words are, right?
Consider this the upturned fedora on the ground next to a street poet who will continue to do his thing whether you toss anything in the hat or not — and I thank you just as sincerely if you feed the hat or if you just listen and go your way with whatever my words have given you. As my dear friend said, I have no expectations.
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It occurred to me last month that it’s long past time I either launched the Patreon page or forget the whole thing. And I recently decided to retire from the day job next spring, when I reach my 50th anniversary of starting a day job. It would be nice to have a little something with which to pay the bills when that happens, including the modest maintenance costs on this website, above and beyond the monthly Social Security payment. And so I hit “Publish” on the Patreon page.
And a month went by before I mentioned it to anybody. I wonder if I’m really serious about this.
