The first letters in support of my camera fund arrived at my Post Office Box this morning, two days after I asked for support for buying a converted Canon monochrome camera. I asked for $3,000, I think I am more than halfway there, although can’t be sure. There was more than $300 in checks this morning, and one angry and anonymous letter with a $1 bill. It’s going in the envelope, along with many other very sweet messages.
“Here’s a $1 bill for you for our stupid camera,” said one letter, which was sent from Boston without a name or return address…Shame on you! Get another job if you can’t afford your bills or want to buy expensive stuff…Stop mooching off of the kindness of your blog readers…Have your healthy looking wife get another job!”
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From Helen Golden of New Jersey: “It is my pleasure to help you get your new camera. After all you have given me immeasurable pleasure with your blog, books, pictures and my visit to Bedlam Farm last October — See you in June, best of everything.”
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From Iris Hoffert of Ocala, Florida: “Your photos and postings bring great joy to my life. Thank you for the depth of your thinking and writing.”
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From Lorraine Hailbach of North East, Pennsylvania: “Dear Mr. Katz, I just wanted you to know that I love all your pictures. I have enjoyed your books and now your blog. I hope this little bit helps…”
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From Kathy Kelly of Concord, Mass: “Hi, Jon, hope this small amount helps your purchase the camera you like to keep your creativity active. Your photography is a gift that you can share with others.”
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Thanks for these contributions, they do help, and they are much appreciated. This is a gift for me, but I also believe a gift to you. My images and words are worth something, and your contributions, however small, affirm that.
We can all be engulfed in the storm at any time, there are so many people eager to do good, given the chance. And so many people shouting at them to come back, to stay in the shadows.
I am excited about the camera, and about the other creative streams in my life. I will move forward. I think there is no greater compliment for a writer or a photographer or any artist than to know that people will take the trouble to mail me contributions for a camera, even in a world where such a thing can also generate much hatred and cynicism.
We are all wearing our own masks, and when the mask cracks – when you lose faith in it, you can withdraw and regress into your own pain and anger at any point in life, at any stage. When society loses its myth, its imagery, its compassion, it feels like a wasteland. That’s what I feel sometimes watching the news, I am looking out at a wasteland. These messages, even the angry one from Boston, remind me that this is not the true picture of life.
My life is a good one, rich in too many ways to count.
The job of the contemporary writer, poet or artist is to bring the life the world in which we live, to activate it in a profound way. That is my job, that is my camera’s job, that is the job of the words I write.
There is always the possibility of chaos, there is always the possibility of bliss.
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Thanks again for your compassion and generosity. People who wish to contribute can do so via Paypal (go to “Friends And Family,” my ID there is [email protected]) or write to Post Office Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.