Because of certain health issues in my family, this past year has been the most difficult of my life, and there are no indications that things will get better any time soon. It's bad enough when people you love are in pain, but it's worse when that happens within the wickedly perverse monstrosity that is the American health care "system" — which would better be called the "chaos." (And I am under no illusions about the character of health care elsewhere in the world; it’s a problem no nation has really solved, though many do better than we do here.) Even when you have good insurance, as I do, the chaos can be nightmarish to navigate, but not everyone I love has my level of coverage, and those dear people are subject not just to stress but also to financial challenges.
I have not said this explicitly, but I am saying it now: The main reason I started this BMAC page was to make some money to help family with their medical bills and other financial needs. After all, I thought, I'm already blogging, already doing a newsletter — maybe I can pick up some cash from what I'm already doing, since I don't have the time or energy to add anything to my plate.
And I am enormously grateful — more grateful than I can properly say — to those of you who have supported me here. But the fact of the matter is that the amount of support I get does not match the amount of work I do. I might be making minimum wage from my blogging but not much better than that.
My books do just fine — except for Breaking Bread with the Dead, which will probably never earn back its advance — but my online audience is tiny, for whatever reasons. (I have my theories, but they are too self-justifying for any honorable person to share.) The blogging has thus become another burden in a season in which I can’t handle another burden.
So here’s the deal:
For the foreseeable future I won’t be writing at my main blog;
I will continue to produce my weekly newsletter;
I will continue to post photographs and links at my micro.blog page (probably more links than I have in the past) — and if you don't know, you can subscribe to a weekly digest of those posts.
With the main blog falling silent, I don’t expect anyone to support me through this site; and if any of you feel that you’ve been cheated and want a refund, I believe you can request that on the site — but if you have any problems, please comment below and I will try to help you.
Thanks, and grace and peace to you all,
Alan
UPDATE: I am honored and pleased and slightly horrified by the new contributions and memberships that have come in the aftermath of this post. Looking back at it I can see that I depicted myself as almost a charity case, and I did not mean to do that! We are fine! I have a good job and am well-paid. It's a challenging time right now but I am a thousand miles from being in financial distress. I really did not anticipate that the post would be read in this way — I thought contributions would simply stop. I am grateful for the support, but if anyone feels that I have misled them, do please ask for a refund. I am confused and embarrassed and somewhat humiliated by the show of support, though also, as I say, very grateful. And I will of course keep writing, just not on the blog, at least for a while.
Also, I am about to go on a bit of a road trip and will not be able to answer the comments below, but please do know that I am grateful for them.