Easy to enjoy, but what's it worth?

There’s no point dressing this up as something it isn’t. I’m asking readers who value the full publication and can afford to support it to pay for it.

That risks coming off as a purely commercial decision, but it’s also a ‘what you value’ one. If you want something of value coming your way every day, why should it be work for me to produce and free for everyone to read?

Good work can be produced and shared generously without being endlessly free, and asking for a fair exchange doesn’t diminish my gratitude to anyone who reads my daily columns. I’m hopeful supportive readers will appreciate - I’m not barricading the free entrance, apologizing for charging, or treating free readers as second-class citizens.

Thank you for this indulgence; here’s what’s changing, here’s why, and you decide.

Free doesn’t have to mean flimsy, and asking to be paid shouldn’t require an apology, so I won’t offer one, nor will I beg - I’m not a charity, though returns on my writing life feel like struggling writers should expect, not value-for-money, but a low cost for a consistent daily jolt of value, and costing much less than that morning cup o’joe.

Value is easy to praise until someone asks, what it’s worth?

For a very long time, I’ve published much of this work for one simple reason:

• What began as a post-walk thought-dump note to six friends and my eldest daughter, as a finger poke in my own eye, some thoughts for that day - it was March 19, 2003… so, as of today: 8,548 consecutive days, and my reason for writing and for publishing it, pushing these daily thoughts, overvations, rants and raves out into the world remains unchanged

• I wanted it to be read by those who want to read it

• I wanted it to be a sharing of what was bubbling, sometimes boiling, sometimes boiling over or rocketing off in my belly, my life, my adventures and missadventures

• I wanted it to be considered, reacted to, responded to, critiqued and to be shared

• And yes, I expected my thoughts to be challenged, argued with or if someone thought them worthy, to re-publish or quote something they felt worthy of their endorsement

None of that is changing.

I’m enormously grateful to everyone who arrives here, whether daily, occasionally, by recommendation, or by some mysterious click I’ll never know about. What is changing is how the work will be divided between free and paying subscribers.

There will still be worthwhile free Musings every day unless I’m prevented by fingers or technology that fails me. I’ve published late a couple of times, but I’ve stayed true to the ‘write every day’ commitment. It didn’t start that way. But after the first few days and the feedback I got, I felt the need to keep going, keep showing up, and to see if people found value in it.

To be clear, I have no interest in turning the free side into a grocery-store sample tray with one lonely cracker on it.

I feel it appropriate to acknowledge a mentor, friend and extraordinary writer - Kathy Taylor, from Vancouver … a fairly early adopter of Musings in that first year. I recall the day she called me, stressed, ‘Where was Musings?’ because she expected it every day, and if it didn’t arrive, something must be wrong with Mark … and that call came to my cell phone about 10:30 AM as I was walking from a meeting to another meeting.

As it turned out, there was a glitch with Shaw (remember them?) that blocked emails with more than 400 addresses in the BCC line, so that happened early. Over that first year or so, I found myself wondering if I could keep it up daily, and with advice and cheering from those who said, “Maybe you’ve got a book there.”

And encouragement came from strangers on top of that from mentors: the late Frank Dabbs, from Kathy, and many more; the book has not come to fruition - not yet. David Angus endorsed the working title, ‘It ain’t about you sweetheart’, and I’ve not come up with a better one. Ralph Huizinga has offered to be my editor, but I wonder if he’s thought that through … c’mon, 8,548 and counting? To edit that all into a book - I think it needs re-think ..

In case, before you read on, I want to drop something here. Kathy offered to write the preface for the book, should it ever manifest, which she kindly and beautifully wrote. I’m forever grateful for her friendship, guidance, perspective and our occasional collaborations:

Not all friends enlighten, but the good ones lighten - a day, or the sky or your load - they always do. Mark’s decision to walk and talk each day to a disparate group of friends, family, business colleagues, romantic interests, and just plain folks can be viewed as either vanity or generosity. Musings began like this…a plan to get outside and walk each day, to turn off the phone, to connect with nature, to exercise body and brain. But he also imposes this daily discipline upon himself to exercise the craft of writing. Writers write. As Mark connected with nature, stilling his often-frenetic energy and absorbing the subtle shifts and nuances of nature, there is less observation of distractions and more musings. It is said that when a human being is deprived of one of the five basic senses, the others are heightened in a compensatory effort. Mark cannot smell. But he has a heightened sense of compassion, humour, awe, and inquisitiveness. That he chooses to share this with his musing pals is a daily treat. - KT, Vancouver

And, another friend, writer and spectacular human - Louise Gallagher … a reader, a dog-walking date (my Gusta, her Grace) our golden retrievers led to a lunch one day when I was having misgivings about ‘calling myself a writer’ because I was pretty sure I was one, but that saying that in a public place felt uncomfortable, like a new piece of clothing we aren’t yet sure whether it fits properly. She reached across the table, grabbed my hands, fixed one of those eyes-locked gazes and said, “Mark, get over yourself, you’re a writer - full stop” … or at least that’s how I remember it.

And there’s more below … see what Louise wrote the day I moved this publication over to Substack …