Taking Notes

Any stigma serves to beat a dogma. Faulkner said about Henry James that he was "one of the nicest old ladies I ever met". Don't know where that came from, but I make a note. It was before dawn this morning, I was sitting in the dark in Pegi's office, watching the snow fall. Streetlights and snow are a lovely combination. The idea of a warm bathroom is sinking in. I suit up and walk down to Market Street for a free coffee and scone. Walk along the river, watching barges of coal pushed against the tide. A piercing wind and blowing snow. I cut across the deserted college campus, stop at the library long enough to warm my hide, then head back to the museum. " My art belongs to Dada", Cole Porter. "I have been told that Wagner's music is better than it sounds." Mark Twain. "Apart from the known and the unknown, what else is there?" Harold Pinter. Too much time time in the library. Living on the ridge, zipping to town with a list, aiming to get back home as quickly as possible, I rarely spent much time cruising the non-fiction stacks. It's a treat to spend an idle hour flipping through the pages of books that might interest me. Walk to the pub for a bowl of stew and a pint. Walk back to the museum (walking everywhere) and read through the afternoon. A large salad for dinner, with half-a-loaf of warm french bread. More snow forecast and the temps are falling quickly. I'm sorry to not be at my house, but I'm comfortable, for god's sake, warm; and not preoccupied with mere survival. It's a question of money, of course, I can't really move to town before I sell my place in the country, and you all know what the market is. Glenn mentioned, years ago, and I paid it little attention, that if my readers pledged a nominal fee, a dollar a month, five dollars a month (I'm sounding like NPR here) that my financial worries would be lessened. The mercy of the court, I'm asking for feedback here. Would that be too much to ask? In many ways it seems to me it is, because I don't write for money. I write to be writing, it's the main thing in my life. But I'd like to be more comfortable, I'd like to stop abusing my body. Tell me what you think. Could I be subsidized by my readers, or not? I don't know. In truth, I don't know most of the people that read me, nor how many there are; and I'm not quite desperate here, but looking for a solution.