That was yesterday: the dawn of November here. It feels haunting, and haunted, and not without good reason. This is going to be an awful week. And we need help.
And the daily responsibilities don't disappear just because of it. As I said yesterday, the whole world seems held in abeyance now, no movement in any direction before Tuesday's end, and frankly, not even then. That's not a luxury we have, though. I would love to be able to do nothing until we know where things stand, but that's not possible. And some hard truths? Even if you get the result you want, it still won't be a good one for us and our peoples and communities. It will just be . . . less bent on our immediate extermination. I'm tired of playing nice about how evil this society and culture truly is, about the harms it intends for us and how all of whiteness benefits from it. That same society has deigned to designate this "Native American Heritage Month," so you want to know about "Native heritage?" You can have it: unwhitewashed and in all its brutal truth.
Climate change doesn't care. The drought doesn't care. The virus doesn't care, and it's spreading. Meanwhile, our own prospects get worse by the day. At some point, this virus will take the action for them that our feckless and cowardly so-called "leaders" are too venal to take, and in the worst possible ways. We will have NO tourism, the economy will collapse entirely, and even more people will die. I'm already buried under an avalanche of looming expenses, with no sales to cover them, and no sign of any anytime soon.
I'm scared. Our Web site hits are down by 60-70% daily now, and the pandemic is worsening here fast. In our tiny county of fewer than 33K people? We've had 110 new cases in the last 11 days; 81 or 82 of them in the last TEN. Several businesses are shut down, and it's not because of the weather; it's because everyone has to quarantine. It's going to get very much worse before it gets better, and at this point? I genuinely don't know how we make it. I have got to bring in some sales, and there's nothing. I need help.
It's no longer a question of winter coming; winter is HERE, and in a very big and dangerous way. It's a good thing, after months with no precipitation of any kind and the land dying literally, visibly, around us. We're warm and housed, but this on top of the pandemic? Is going to make things very much worse in the short term, and probably the longer term of what remains of fall and all of winter into spring, too.
I have to get us through the rest of the year safely. My next big thing is finding a way to cover Wings's aids, because this is one of those things that is urgent now. One sale of 3 grand would do it; whatever, I have to raise it, and so I'm going to be back to flogging sales daily, hard. I also have to cover Miika's hoof work, the hay, and more immediately, the plumbing.
My laptop is still slowly dying, as is my camera, both of which are integral parts of our work. I hope they make it through year's end, but they may not. The laptop is down to one working port, and if I lose that, I'm screwed. We cannot live without either one, because they are both necessary for our work at the most very basic level. And of course, I still need to figure out how to cover the ~$15K for drilling the well, so that maybe in future years, we won't be over this particular barrel. I have no idea how I'm going to do all this, but I do know that we need to make steady sales to survive. If you're in the market to buy, please consider us, because two episodes of nearly dying were more than enough, but this year is already damn near killing me, and I have to get us through into next year safely somehow, which means I have got to make sales somehow. It's all on me, and I can't do this alone. So please share the links, and if/when you're in the market for gorgeous, authentic, Spirit-infused Indigenous wearable art, Wings will have something perfect for you. The links are here:
We don't survive unless I make some steady sales, now, and in the days and weeks to come. Thanks.
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