Whadya mean "donate"?!

Allow me to quote myself from the Preface of my book:

• Page xi: "In the late 1990s, God beat me senseless, and then tossed some coins on me for good measure. It is from this time that my healthy disrespect for America’s culture of money took hold."
• Page xiii: "As I mentioned above, I don’t care much for money anymore."

So I write that, and then I put a PayPal Donate button on my site? What am I? Some kind of hypocrite?

Nope. Read on:

• Page xi: "It’s not that I'm anti-money. What I'm anti is the worship of money."
• Page xiii: "This is not to say that I'll throw back any money sent my way, ... . It is to say only that I'm done with chasing such things."

Now maybe this sounds like too delicate a Clintonian distinction for you. If so, allow me to explain further.

I don't need your money. I don't even want your money qua money. But I realize that this is America in the early days of the new millennium and that money as a language has acquired a vocabulary well beyond its reasonable scope.

Let me give you an example. A few months ago, someone sent me an URL to a song that a fellow named Chris Chandler had posted for free download on his site. I wrote a blog posting about this.

The song moved me not only because I loved the music. It was also because the song spoke to the very same things I had been writing about in my blog. I hadn't heard similar sentiments anywhere. And I really appreciated hearing Chris' version.

Now Chris had placed a Donate button on his site. So I clicked it and donated him some money.

Here's what I meant by doing that: "Chris, I really enjoyed your song. I found it moving. I appreciate your effort in creating that fine piece, and for posting it for free download. Keep up the good work."

Now I could have just done that. I mean, I could have sent him an email with those words. But, at the time, I didn't feel like writing all that. So instead, I just sent him a donation.

Accordingly, the Donate button on my site means whatever you want it to mean. Simple as that.

I was going to start writing about what I'll do with the proceeds I get from this button. But you know what? I think I'll hold off on being so presumptuous as to assume anybody would actually do that.

There you have it.