Labor of Love Paid Ahead

What an unsettled year, now settled.

I didn’t realize I would crash my bike and get a concussion, nor that I would drive cross-country and get sicker than I’ve ever been, nor that I would so easily recover.

I had wanted to get at my “real work,” which is promoting the goods inherent in ourselves, each other, life, and the cosmos as-is. Barely doing much UU preaching (a few times in Grants Pass and once in Montana) I had hoped to initiate gatherings of my own.

It took a lot of time and money to rent a space and do advertising, dozens of hours and hundreds of dollars, finally. However, I did receive $7 in the collection basket.

Perhaps my provocative themes warded off potential interest. I grow weary and impatient with dull, predictable sermons. I’ve never liked being expected to be as nice and bland as many ministers. We’re in the midst of the sixth mass extinction, this one being caused by how humans live. We need to wake up to our inherent health, beauty, pleasures, and conscience if we’re ever going to live as full, satisfied, and ethically honorable as we can.

I get tired of appeals for connection and money, no matter how noble the causes. I want both, but not by pestering people for them. Perhaps because I am loathe to bother people with my self-promotion, hardly anyone came. At best, three people attended in a room set-up for twenty. It dropped to one for this service – one woman who liked my presentation and added to it – but grew exponentially up to three for the “Love Drugs” talk.

Getting my Mail Chimp analysis of the traffic, it showed rapid growth – up 200%! Up to three! Such a growth curve is impressive! Except it isn’t. I am mocked by my own pretensions.

Mocked, but not knocked out. I believe what I have to offer is truly useful for our world, but only a few know of my efforts, and only a minimal number of those care enough to come.

Even so, I felt relieved to have tried. Such inclinations have been in me since coming to Ashland over 33 years ago. With the help of my web master, son Tobias, I’ve created an extensive array of writing and video for visitors to peruse. All that will stay there as I now venture into finishing a book on the topic and vidcasting.

Much like podcasting (using audio only) vidcasting will convey both audio and images. Instead of drawing on my local town, it could reach anyone anywhere. From my office I could relate with people from across the country and around the world. A rarefied community of interest could grow. Five subscribers to my 4444Byrd YouTube channel (by Brad Carrier) could become hundreds and thousands of times that. (You’d have to subscribe here and/or YouTube to receive notice of vidcasts.)

Is this Quixotic, crazy me tilting on the side of windmills? Sure. But of the lessons I’ve learned in life, this is what I intuit I should be doing. I’m paying it forward. So far, ample satisfaction, if not subscribers or money. Yet.