Jonathan - you don't know how much I needed this reflection this morning. As I'm laboring in an artistic endeavor (releasing an EP, in this case) that is unlikely to see much material return in the market economy, it's been a real struggle to make peace with that. The songs came to me as a gift, and I want to pass them along to others (and if a few cents in streaming royalties come back to me, all the better). But the market-driven world around us constantly screams that the work only counts if it becomes revenue-generating and financially self-sustaining. The notion of a gift economy is something I'll be chewing on for a while. Thank you for the gift of this piece!
Jonathan - you don't know how much I needed this reflection this morning. As I'm laboring in an artistic endeavor (releasing an EP, in this case) that is unlikely to see much material return in the market economy, it's been a real struggle to make peace with that. The songs came to me as a gift, and I want to pass them along to others (and if a few cents in streaming royalties come back to me, all the better). But the market-driven world around us constantly screams that the work only counts if it becomes revenue-generating and financially self-sustaining. The notion of a gift economy is something I'll be chewing on for a while. Thank you for the gift of this piece!
Received with gratitude. Thank you for writing this, Jonathan! And now to pass it along...