Monday, November 10, 2008

American Dream

So... Mike and I discussed ways I could make some cash for my time in New York(that didn't include the second job I am now considering taking up) and thought why not ask my dear friends to donate a pound or two. Being bored (work - me spreadsheets filled with completion rates and highest qualification on entry stats, Mike scholarships), I did a quick draft that Mike completed and I then sent out to my dear friends as an experiment and to celebrate my good fortune. We also set up a group on Facebook. Now, it seems it wasn't appreciated, me asking for donations, by quite a few. It seems to be ok to raise money so that you can go gallivanting across the Gobi desert, or climbing a rock in some mounting but not this. But I wonder, is it really any different? Is the text below offensive? And how do I set up a PayPal account so the people who actually do love me can give me a quid?????

Friends and Charitable Strangers

Once in every person's life, there comes a time for dreams to be fulfilled. Some of us grow up wishing to be astronauts, princesses or dinosaurs. Some of us feel an overwhelming drive to become and artist or a footballer or a town crier. Some dreams are more worthy than others; some dreams can come true.

There are few things in life more rewarding that helping another person to fulfil a dream, making the remote and the impossible achievable, with nothing more that a little kindness or support. You have the chance to make someone's dream come true.

You are lucky enough to know (perhaps even like) someone who has identified her dream, and is working to make it a reality. Anna has always been a writer, but now she wants to take the next step in the completion of her ambitions, and become, for a while a writer in New York. She plans to embrace the bohemian life of the Big Apple, possibly even adopting a bad French accent and a tiny hat. She will eat food from street vendors, and hail taxis in a flamboyant manner. She will immerse herself in the writing opportunities, and finally finish the novel and stories she has been polishing and editing for years.

She has ached for this chance for many years, and this summer has managed to arrange 12 weeks away from her job to travel.

The only thing holding her back now is the wretched practicability of life. With an over-priced mortgage, student debt, and no savings, a bad knee, and a bit of a cold, she is a needy case, looking up at you, in your warm coat, like a lonely puppy, tied to a lamp-post, eyes as big and deep and brown as your favourite type of coffee.

A recommended donation of £10 - or whatever you can afford - would help Anna get her life's dream up and running. £5 will feed a starving artist for a day. £20 will pay for a cigarette holder of enormous length and elegance. £100 will pay for an extensive fishing course and equipment, so that Anna can feed herself from the rich waters of the Hudson.

Anna appreciates your generosity, and knows that this is a very cheeky request, so would like to assure any givers that this would be a memorable and productive cause. She hopes to arrange an evening of drinks and merriment before she leaves, as a way of thanking her supporting and good-looking friends. She also promises to sign copies of her book for all purchasers.

Please, take this chance to make a friend's life a whole lot better, at almost no cost to yourself. Help Anna to spend 12 weeks working hard, sucking the marrow out of the bones of life, and hopefully being happier than any human being has much right to be. Go on - be the person who does a nice thing just like that, and then give yourself a pat on the back.

Mr Mike Rose-Steel - philosopher, poet, scholar

No comments:

Post a Comment