Vanity file and Creative Commons
Tuesday, February 7, 2006 at 06:14PM I had nearly forgotten that at the bottom of each page of this blog rest these words:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
The implications of putting such a statement there came home to me when I looked at today's snail mail. The "winter SOLSTICE 2005" E-Zine from Ms Elaine Harger from out in Snoqualmie, WA, appeared. Tightly bound with Scotch tape, it's a wonderful creation - seven 8 1/2" x 11" photocopied sheets, folded in half, becoming a small booklet of a marvelously illustrated personal information, all making sort of, well, a big Christmas letter. And I received it because Ms Harger reprinted my blog bit about Bullshit Literacy. She was very sweet and included a handwritten note (great handwriting!) stating her "rule is that, whoever's name appears gets a copy." I could not be more proud of being "published."
My basement office holds several large plastic tubs I call my vanity files. These hold the physical copy of every magazine, journal or book in which my writing has appeared. Why I started collecting these materials and why I continue to do so, I haven't quite figured out. Perhaps it is to simply annoy my children who will need to dispose of them when I shuffle off this mortal coil. Or that deep down I don't trust computers keep my words of wisdom into perpetuity - that only paper and ink can be counted on not to crash. Anyway, I am proudly adding Ms Harger's E-Zine to the files.
A person has to wonder how many places one's writing will appear in print under the Creative Common's license. I would guess Ms Harger is uncommonly polite in sending me a copy of her publication - and that I can never hope to know about most printings. Is this how sperm donors feel?
I'd just never thought anyone would actually take advantage of the Creative Commons license!
Anyway, I wish Ms Harger all the very best and thank her for her newsletter. I was genuinely touched by her bittersweet request to newsletter readers to "share a beer and have a chat" with her estranged friend Charles still in NYC. Would that anyone who once loved me, think of me even half as kindly as Ms Harger thinks of Charles.
