It’s been a very hot summer, full of bugs and humidity, we haven’t done nearly as much walking in the morning as we usually do. We did go out together this morning, it’s finally cooler and drier. The meadow is thick and lush this year, almost impassable for the dogs or for us.
But it is still beautiful in its own way, and I took this photo with my Achromat Art Lens. I love the softness and texture of the meadow.
Mansion Activities Director Julie Smith had a great idea for a new activity for the residents that directly involves the Army Of Good, who live in every part of America and much of the Western World.
And it’s free.
“I just had a thought,” she wrote, “it would be great fun for the residents if you asked people from the blog to send a little note with information about the town or area they live in. I thought I would start a new activity where we would add their town on a map of the United States and talk about it.”
I posted this yesterday and Julie immediately got a bunch of e-mails with short descriptions of different towns and some local photo. Julie’s e-mail is [email protected]. She is forever looking for new and interesting activities for the residents.
You can e-mail her a short description of your town and send a photo of you wish (optional) or mail you comments – two or three paragraphs — to the Mansion if you prefer, c/o Julie, The Town Project, 11 S. Union Avenue, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.
I love this project. For one thing, it is free. For another, it is simple. And I can picture the wonderful map Julie plans make out of your messages and photos. This could be a living and continuous project that connects people of good heart with people of great need.
This kind of project is more important than it might seem.
The residents often tell me they feel abandoned and forgotten – no longer true, thanks to the Army Of Good, and they love being noticed and spoken to and remembered. They are also intensely curious about the outside world.
Many of the residents grew up in rural upstate New York and have little experience with the world beyond.
They are fascinated by your letters and messages, so if you can take a minute or so to write a few paragraphs about your town and e-mail or mail it to Julie, that would make a big difference and do a lot of good.
The residents also love our Pen Pal program, some can’t respond to your letters, but everyone I talk to loves getting them. They answer when they can.
If you wish to write to the Mansion residents, here is a current list of residents who wish to receive your messages. You can send them to The Mansion, 11 S. Union Avenue, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.
I can’t give out full names, nor am I permitted to update you on their medical or emotional conditions unless they give me specific permission and I clear it with the staff.
Here they are: Winnie, Ellen, Matt, Gary, Gerry, Sylvie, Diane, Alice, Jean, Madeline, Joan, Allan, Bill, Blanche, Helen, Alanna, Peggie, Dottie, Tim, Art, Jackie, Brenda, Wayne, Kenneth, Ruth.
And thanks.
The Great Recession changed many people’s lives, including mine. As the publishing world as I knew it collapsed – my longtime editor was laid off and I was orphaned – and royalties and book contracts disappeared and shrank, I knew I had to change.
I’ve written 26 books, but it didn’t really matter. I swore I would be a writer, no matter what it takes. That’s why I started my blog
If I was to continue to be a relevant writer, it was up to my blog to keep my writing and to also help support me.
Four years ago, I reluctantly and uncomfortably began asking to be paid for my work, I asked readers to contribute to the blog and my photography – both expensive to maintain – through voluntary payments and donations.
Although a very small fraction of my many readers (bless you) contribute to the blog, this idea has been a success. There are four million visits a year to the blog, and many of you have supported my work with contributions and donations and that has made an enormous difference in my life.
To be honest, I’m reluctant to ask for money for me when I’m asking for money for the Mansion residents and refugees so often. That money goes into separate accounts, it only goes to them, not to me.
This year, I am embarking on a $4,000 re-design of the blog, so necessary in order to keep up with the smart phone and Internet infrastructure changes and revolution. You cannot survive and grow online without investing in yourself, and keeping up.
Photography is not a hobby for me, it is my work, and it is also expensive. I take pictures of everything I write about.
The blog is the engine that supports all of my work – my photography, writing, Mansion work, refugee work, soccer team work. I realized this morning – actually Maria realized this morning – that I have not asked for support for myself for nearly six months or reminded people that that this is important and necessary for me.
So I’m asking for support now, and reminding people that the blog cannot grow and survive without it.
The subscription and voluntary payment programs are inexpensive, safe and simple to use. And safe.
No financial information of any kind is stored on my site or servers. You can cancel subscriptions or voluntary payments at any time, and easily (the program warns people of renewals a week before they are due).
One time donations can be given in any amount, and at any time through Paypal or any major credit cards. People who don’t use the Internet can also support my work by sending a donation to my Post Office Box – Jon Katz, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, or via Paypal, [email protected].
Please consider supporting my work if you enjoy it or find it meaningful. In our divided culture, we are more and more turning only to people who agree with us, and that is not my way. Anyone is welcome here, and I don’t need to always be agreed with, in fact, it has never happened.
I hope the blog has always been a force for good and compassion, even if you sometimes disagree with me. That is the way a democracy is supposed to function.
If you wish to subscribe to the blog, you can choose three different monthly voluntary subscription programs – $,5, $10 a month, or $75 a year. If you have no money or are stressed financially, the blog is free and will always be free to those who can’t pay or donate.
You can subscribe for free by inserting your email in the subscription box at the top of the Farm Journal Page .
And you can make a one-time donation at any time for any amount here.
I will never turn my back on the many people who have supported me from the beginning. But I have come to see that it is important to be paid for my work, just as you are paid for yours.
This is the new world of writing, and I am proud and happy to be a part of it.
I work hard on my blog, I write just about every day, often more than once, the subject matter has grown, and I believe deepened. I write about my life, spirituality, dogs and animals, rural life and the Army Of Good, a miraculous outgrowth of the blog.
People tell me it matters to them, and my readers are now all over the country, including Hawaii. The blog is also read in England, Australia, and New Zealand.
Since 2016, the blog has made a turn, it is dedicated to small acts of kindness, to doing good rather than adding to the dispiriting din of argument, cruelty and conflict.
I guess I need support to, for my own life and well being, and for the people I am now trying to help.
I believe the blog has become more important every year, and I mean to keep it that way. If you wish to continue reading the blog and want it to continue, I would welcome your help.
I thank the very good people who have supported it from the beginning, in so many different ways. i will work hard to make you think, laugh, cry and learn.
And thanks.
“As long as we are able to be extravagant,
we will be hugely and damply extravagant.
Then we will drop foil by foil to the ground.
This is our unalterable task, and we do it joyfully.
And they went on. “Listen, the heart-shackles
are not, as you think,
death, illness, pain, unrequited hope,
not loneliness,
but lassitude, rue, vainglory,
fear,
anxiety,
selfishness.
Their fragrance all the while rising
from their blind bodies, making me
spin with joy.”
–When The Roses Speak: Pay Attention, by Mary Oliver, Devotions
Audio: I read the poem
I have to say I cherish my meetings with Ali in our “office,” a tiny booth in the rear of Stewart’s Convenience Store in Schaghticoke, N.Y. The visits usually begin with an early morning phone call from Ali, who needs something for the soccer team, of which I am a proud sponsor. It isn’t the Olympics yet in a way, it is.
I am a very proud sponsor of this team. Ali and I, a lapsed Jew and a fervent Muslim, meet at our “office” at least once a week for coffee and talk about our work with the soccer team and the refugees and immigrants in the Albany area.
There is a strong boundary between us: it’s his team, he runs it in any way he wishes, I help him for as long as I can and in every way I can. He is doing so much for this team.
Ali’s fame is growing, some people recognize him at the office either from my blog or from the newspaper stories about him and the team. I suppose I am a shadowy figure in some ways, but after Ali left today with his pizza slice and soda, the waitress asked me if he was “available,” she said he was cute.
Ali is a charmer, for sure, I had to give her the sad news that he is engaged to a woman now living in the Sudan, they will be married next year there and will then return here. Today, Ali needed support for a Birthday celebration for one of the soccer players.
Since many of them never get birthday parties or presents – there is no money in their families – we give them a barbecue or bowling party or cookout and a present that Ali chooses – something that he knows they need.
This costs between $100 and $150, depending on where we need to go and what the present is. Without Ali, there would be no birthday celebration, and every single player gets a party. Today’s birthday party is for Es-Taw, who is 14.
Ali also needed money for socks for Sakler Moo who is now at the Albany Academy, working hard on his homework. We help the kids on the team who need new clothes for school.
They have stiff dress codes in some of these schools. In addition. I paid for the insurance for our Big Red Van, and also reimburse Ali for gas for the van, which costs $80 a fill. We did all of this today for about $450.
The van is our Independence Day. We no longer have to ask anyone for permission to do anything but treat these children well and with love, and we both know just where all the money goes – to the soccer team.
It turns out that Ali and the Albany Warriors are getting quite popular, several people and at least one organization have contacted Ali and suggested – aggressively and persistently – that they wish to take over the sponsorship of the team and offer him a steady stream of tons of money and support.
This happened after a front-page story about the team in a local newspaper.
Some of this pressure is getting intense, and I see it is bothering Ali.
Ali seems almost passionately disinterested in these offers, but I told him he should feel free to do whatever it is that he needs or wants to do. I love sponsoring this team, but we both want to do what is best for them. That is Ali’s decision, not mine. He founded the team, owns it and runs it and coaches it.
He says he is not even considering switching sponsorship. I am glad to hear it but I leave it to him, he is free to do whatever he wishes, no strings attached.
Ali says he remembers all too well the years when there was absolutely no support for the team in any form at all. I remember when the team showed up in flip-flops and had to beg and borrow soccer balls for practice.
He says they are quite happy, and their new uniforms – The Albany Warriors – are coming soon. I was touched by what he said, but I would not interfere or object if he could do something better. I trust him completely.
And we are quite a great team ourselves, it feels very solid, and it only gets better.
It’s hard for many people – even those who have worked with Ali – to understand the very personal nature of his connection with his soccer team.
He is a surrogate parent for many of them, he guides them and protects them and teaches them and supports them. He fills the holes in their difficult lives and holds their hands as the navigate a difficult new world.
As close as I am to Ali, no one is remotely as close to these young people as he is, their bond is quite profound and beautiful. He will get them across the bridge.
We also share a very powerful and distinct passion for this work, for doing good in a time of trouble. This is not something I could let go of unless that is what Ali wanted. Our connection with one another makes this work.
I am happy to be in the background, a mysterious figure who appears to help them get what they need. The soccer team is about a lot more than soccer. I could not be more comfortable or fulfilled.
So another important meeting at our office today. It always feels good.
Ali and I are plotting get -together for his mother and Maria, the two can’t speak much to one another – Ali’s mother speaks little English – but they already seem to love each other. There are lots of ways to communicate beyond language.
Ibtesam wants to teach Maria how to cook Sudanese food, and Maria wants to make some fiber art with her.
Both of them are thrilled with the idea, Ali and I are picking a date for them to get together here on the farm, and also in Albany. I know they will love being together, they already have a powerful connection and have just met once.
Ali and I often talk about the time when this very wonderful exercise will end. The team will grow up, I will grow older, Ali will inevitably move on with his own wife and family. That day must come, as all things change.
But for now, it is a beautiful experience we are sharing, for as long as it lasts, something it may be difficult for outsiders to understand, but which we both cherish very much. You all are a part of it and thanks.
