When Maria went to the post office this morning, Wendy, one of the postal workers there, said “you two have a lot of mail in the post office box today.” She was right. The mailbox (P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816,) my magical connection to the true world), was full, stuffed with $10 and $25 dollar bills and checks, most for $25 dollar, two or three for $100.
On the first day of or blog fund for Kelly Nolan – today was the first day mail could have arrived here – she received $740 from people all over the country – Arizona, California, Florida, New Mexico, Texas, Oregon, Mississippi, Canada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New York State Montana and Nevada.
“Like you said,” wrote Sarah from Massachusetts, “we’ve all been there. Thanks for organizing this. and thank you for writing. I’ve gradually changed my mind about crowdsourcing due in part to your words.” Thanks to you, Sarah.
Donna lifted my heart with her contribution, writing: “thank you for your wonderful blogs, photographs, and creative, caring natures. You have given life to a community that exists online but one that I carry within my heart each day.” Thank you Donna, this is a community of the heart now, full of caring people, most of whom have, like you and Sarah, been there.
Do not believe their news, it is crammed with hatred and horror, frightened and angry people generate a lot more revenue than good and peaceful people. They literally make enormous amounts of money off of the blood of human beings.
People will always do good when given the opportunity, and Kelly is one of us, she does good and has a big heart. You can see it in her radiant smile, which I have been privileged to photograph at her workplace, the Bog bar and restaurant (Foggy Notions.)
A few weeks ago, she was thrilled to adopt a rescue stray, she did not know at first that the dog was pregnant. When she found out, she decided to keep the dog and was excited about the new puppies, she was planning to give them to good homes for free. The birth was hard, frightening and difficult. It went on for hours, she rushed the dog to the Cambridge Valley Veterinary Service, the staff there spent most of the day working on the dog, finally turning to surgery to save two of the puppies. Three died.
I asked Kelly how much it cost, and she shrugged and said $1,300 which she put on her credit card.
“What could you do?, ” she said, “I had no choice. I’ll pay it off a bit at a time.” She did, of course, have a choice, but it wasn’t a choice she could make. I can’t say for sure I could have made the same one, although Maria says I would have.
If you see how hard Kelly works – she runs the bar and the restaurant, waits tables and cleans them and pours drinks – you can see how much sweat it would take her to pay off that credit card. She is gentle, gracious, uncomplaining.
It lifts the heart to see the true nature of people.
These contributions were small, hard won from hard working people. I was so moved by those small bills, folded up and hidden behind paper. I don’t think there are many wealthy people reading my blog, although those that do have money have always been generous.
Many things unite us here, including a love of animals and also a search for creative and meaningful lives. In this sense, we are a community. I started the blog in 2007 to support my books but it has become much more than that. We are sharing our lives here, our search for meaning. Animals, too.
I am grateful for this new way of helping people. I didn’t use a crowdsourcing site for this effort, I had faith in the blog community and wanted this to be intimate. There are a lot of us now, and we can put ourselves in Kelly’s shoes. I don’t ever want the blog to be about money, but we are part of a social awakening, building a new kind of community, centered around the love of animals and the desire for community.
We help one another when we can.
Community is about connection and about helping one another when it is appropriate. People are still getting used to the idea of crowdsourcing, some are threatened and disturbed by it. I believe it has done great good.
No one can ever jeer at Kelly that she ought to get a job or work harder for a living. She didn’t ask anyone for a dime, this was my idea, not hers. She sweats for every penny she earns, harder than most people. And her love for her dog is poignant. Like most of us, she didn’t have $1,300 lying around. It didn’t stop her.
Like the good woman said, “we’ve all been there.” I remember the day we had to agree to a $2,000 operation to save Minnie and amputate one of her logs. How could I justify this?,” I thought. How can we do it? But you all know the answer. Animals do that to us. How could we not do it?
I appreciate that some people can give and some people can’t. It is always a choice, not an obligation.
In a way, the $10 and $20 bills tucked and folded into the letters are especially touching. My role for helping people is simple and, I think rational: I do what I can, for as long as I can, whenever I can. And sometimes I can’t.
So we have put a huge dent in that bill – it’s more than half-way paid off. And I expect more contributions tomorrow and Wednesday or later in the week. There is no deadline. If you wish, you can sent a contribution to Kelly, you can mail it to P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816. You can make the checks out to Jon Katz or Kelly Nolan. If you prefer, you can donate via Paypal, my ID is [email protected], people use the Friends and Family option.
Please be sure to mention it is for the Kelly Fund.
And thank you, my wish was to do a small good in a week of rage and horror. You all remind me and one another that the world is full of good, not just sadness. I can’t wait to hand this money to Kelly.