Here Here, we all gotta eat and anyway, how are you going to buy that
replacement carpet you've worn out? Can you explain to me what happens when
you are called to the carpet? Is it better or worse than being called to
the phone? Does it call for you to put your nose to the grindstone, your
ear to the rail, thumb on the pulse, spit in the wind, feet in the fire, hat
in the ring?
The moon was bright, just the first of many celestial events occurring
around this calendar shift, I've heard a major planetary syzygy is to arrive
in the spring.
Mark (planning to stay away from large crowds and anthrax fears this new
years)
-----Original Message-----
From: John Leeke <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
<[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thursday, December 23, 1999 10:34 AM
Subject: Re: Commercial Promotion on BP
>I sometimes am criticized for always thinking about getting paid or always
>tooting my own horn. My personal life is my work is my way to earn a
living.
>I am a one-person operation who works by hourly labor and thought, to earn
a
>living. I have no profitable schemes by which money is generated without my
>direct attention. If I am thinking about where the dollars are coming from
>my family is eating. If I am working with my hands my destiny is fulfilled.
>If am helping other people my heart is glad. If someone wants my attention
>to ask a simple question which has a quick answer I am willing to help
>them with no charge but they will soon have to listen to an advertisement
>about how I can sell them something. With me life, work and money are very
>closely related. It would waste too much of my time time to try to separate
>them.
>
>The idea that commercialism can be separated from other aspects of life in
>this society is a stretch for me to understand. I was once called on the
>carpet for promoting my own commercial interests with the mention of my
>business in my signature on a maillist by an academic who said
>that he was not involved in any commercial activity whatsoever. Yet his
>academic institution which paid his salary was advertised at the end of
>every one of his message signatures. More than once I have been called on
>the carpet because I have not been philanthropic enough in giving away my
>services. Actually my business does give away 10% of post-tax profits, but
>only to fields outside of preservation because I do not think it is right
to
>undercut the market for the services of my fellow preservationeers. I am
>often called on the carpet by my wife who has difficulty
>understanding how I can justify spending the time to answer an email
message
>from a stranger. It is because I NEED to. The carpet is getting a little
>worn over here in the corner where I stand
>shuffling my shoes, wondering what I'm going to say and do next, trying to
>get
>through life and keep out of trouble.
>
>I think we need to relax a little on this issue of non-commercialism. On
the
>one hand it seems ludicrous to me that much at all happens without
>dollars changing hands in the hopes that someone comes out ahead; and on
the
>other hand a lot seems to happen when a friend (or a stranger) asks for
>help and gets even more than is expected. Let's face it: it can be (and
>often
>is) in someone else's best interest to promote our own best interests to
>them. The better off I am commercially the better off are those who ask for
>my help, whether they pay me or not.
>
>
>I have arranged my life, work and business so I can help people whether
they
>have no money, a little money or a lot of money.
>
>What's the point? Don't ask me for conclusions, I'm not a philosopher, just
>a guy in the middle of the Night in middle of
>Maine in the middle of the Winter. Did you notice how bright the Moon is?
>
>John Leeke, Preservation Consultant
>
>publisher: Practical Restoration Reports
>contributing editor: Old-House Journal
>postal: 26 Higgins St., Portland, Maine 04103, USA
>phone & fax: 01 207 773-2306
>email: [log in to unmask]
>website: www.HistoricHomeWorks.com
>
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