Martha Merrill wrote:
> ...The link below is updated daily but there are links to back issues
> on the same page if you check it later than today (7/31)..."PRICE TAG FOR
> FUNERAL EULOGY ANGERS GRIEVING GRANDCHILD"...
>
> http://www.ucomics.com/dearabby/viewda.cfm
Hello Martha and all,
"What everyone else has already said..." You have raised a great point here,
one that always seems to need revisiting - when, when not and how to donate
one's services... For me, I try to judge each case individually. If it's for
some kind of cause, especially something in which I have deep personal
convictions, I will usually donate, discount my fee, or perhaps trade my
services in any number of ways. Some of my own examples:
- *occasional* solos at my somewhat cash-starved Unitarian church - which kind
of raises another point, which I'm sure most of us face on a continual basis,
wherever we go - how to respond to, um, "everybody and her dog" who asks, "Do
you sing in (a) (the) choir?" Why not?" I am learning to respond in various
succinct but still diplomatic ways, something like, "I am 'designed' and trained
as a professional soloist...(etc.)", with maybe some short variation on our
topic here...
- trading services, which is sort of "another universe in itself"... -
trading/bartering, either informally or through some kind of "LETS (Local
Economic Trading System), using "local currency", aka "green dollars", etc., for
"services in kind", e.g., singing/teaching for, well, just about any kind of
service or product - massage, counselling, cookies, gardening, web
services....... e.g., Victoria LETS: Main Page http://www.lets.victoria.bc.ca/
- just one of many good things for healing critically-ill communities, planets,
people and such... and the inherent sociability that happens here (and with my
next point) is often most pleasant... "random abstract rant mode has been
activated"...:o)
- "sociopoliticalecospiritual" causes, rallies, marches, etc.... - occasional
"coffee houses" put on by my local chapter of the Sierra Club, where I also
volunteer as an "office guy", which (I'm told) looks good on my office resume,
in my, um, quest for that mythical, mystical ideal kind of short hours,
high-paying office job that would "finally free" me, to give me the time, money
and perhaps most importantly, energy, to quote my own personal "mini-mission
statement", to "'just' "sing and heal" - "whenwherehowwithwhomever" I wish...
unless I am yet to discover, um, "another path"..."terminating random abstract
rant mode"...:o)
As just about any "business-minded" person will say, there is something to be
said for, to a *point*, giving stuff away, e.g., "complimentary" tickets for
shows you're in, cds, etc., to "certain selected demographics", e.g., media,
friends of friends, doing various "showcases", etc., to reasonably promote your
product, without getting a reputation as a "pushover"... - kind of a variation
on "needing to spend money to make money", "what goes around, comes around"...
Generally, for any kind of "occasional event" for close friends and relatives, I
almost always donate my services. A few months ago, I arranged with some dear
friends/colleagues to perform a benefit concert with me to raise funds for a
kidney transplant for my recipient nephew and donor sister. No one was paid -
All the proceeds ($1,400, by the way...) went to "the cause". In the process,
one of my accompanist friends became rather more than, um, "just a
friend"...:o) To make a long story short, in the old , um, "bigger picture",
there is no price on love, in all its myriad forms... Again, the old "what goes
around, comes around", often in the most wonderfully surprising ways...:o)
Blessings.
Michael
Michael Eckford <michaelb@y...>
Michael Eckford <michaelb@y...>
B.Mus., M.Mus., Green Eccentric Introvert With Loud Voice
Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada
http://www.angelfire.com/me/interdependence/
"Be the change you want to see in the world." - Gandhi
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