More than one person has expressed their concern to me about how ambitious this project is, that perhaps I’m aiming too high here. They’re being polite of course…what they’re thinking is “you’re nuts, trying to raise twenty-six grand from strangers all over the world who don’t know you from Adam.”

Fair enough, that’s definitely a chunk of change, but that’s the wonder of the internet…being able to reach huge numbers of people at an opportunity cost that’s next to zero, especially compared to the pre-internet days of fundraising with its phone and mailing lists, the time and expense of printing thousands of flyers, and of course the costs of postage and phone bills to get that message out. Factor in the reality that most people who received phone calls or mailed flyers simply weren’t inclined to contribute to the cause in question and you had a lot of wasted phone calls and flyers wadded up and tossed in the trash. I hate waste.

With the internet, if people aren’t interested they just move on…no expense incurred to the would be fund raiser, and better still, no trash to add to all the other junk out there as a result!

But those who do contribute do so because they want to do something helpful for a cause that they’ve come to believe is a worthy one. That makes it my job to convince them that my goal IS a worthy one,and I’m happy to do the convincing. Honestly, I don’t see it as all that tough a job. All I have to do is describe the reality of my situation well enough so people can really understand it and put themselves in my place.

Those  folks who are willing to help know their donation isn’t going to vanish into the ether on some vague and nebulous promise that it’ll somehow do some good somewhere at some undefined point. The goal is concrete, this fundraising effort is viable, and as I’ve posted before, the target may not be within bowshot yet, but it sure is very much in sight. When my Element is successfully converted, I’ll quit adding PayPal buttons to my posts and change the name of the blog to something suitable like Glenn’s Happy Smiley World-O-Fun Blog…you get the idea, something more laid back and casual than its current, more urgent mission.

Their donation won’t be diluted by ‘operating ‘ or ‘overhead’ expenses, because I have none, thanks to that aforementioned near-zero opportunity cost. I’m doing this on my own. Being forcibly retired by this stupid mindless disease gives me plenty of time to really put some of myself into it with my efforts, and that’s a healthy thing to do with my energy.

Best of all, that donation will, like the tag line of this blog says, help a disabled guy get his life back after having it shattered by a particularly nasty affliction, and that’s not some maudlin story ginned up to provoke an emotional response. It’s ME…and being human I can’t help absolutely hating that it’s me and not some truly nasty creep who really earned it…but I’m stuck with it.

This project is going to happen. It won’t happen in one miraculous swoop, it’s going to succeed because I’m going to do what it takes to reach the thousands of people I know are out there who can’t afford to do much, but they can give a buck here and a buck there without straining too hard…and that will get the job done.

My friend Arlo Guthrie knows all about this idea. I can say with confidence that he’s my friend even though we’ve never met; as he’s said before himself, when people’s hearts and minds are in the same place, they’re friends, even if they never actually encounter one another. Arlo knows all about accomplishing things a bit at a time…inch by inch and mile after mile.

Glenn