Thank You

I am stunned—just stunned—by the response to our fundraiser for the S. family. So are they. I keep looking at the GoFundMe page in amazement. I know some of the people who gave (and you know who you are—thank you P., B., E. V., A., J. … ), but most of them are names I don’t recognize. Many contributed anonymously.

Where did all of these kind people come from? Are they my readers? Are they you?

I’m moved by every contribution, small and large alike. (I’m well aware that if you have less money, a smaller amount represents as much of a sacrifice.)

Thank you. Thank you to everyone who contributed and thank you to everyone who shared the link. Humanity may not be perfect, but sometimes, it is truly noble.

To everyone who contributed anonymously, thank you for a gift that you probably didn’t intend to give me. I’m now finding that no matter who I speak to or think about, I wonder if it might be someone who contributed anonymously to the fundraiser.

Do yourself a favor. Try going through your normal daily interactions while wondering if everyone to whom you speak is secretly generous and altruistic in a way you’d never imagined. What results is a state of mind that’s novel to me, and I don’t think there’s a good word for it in English. It’s the exact opposite of paranoia. Interestingly, the word paranoia has no real antonym. Until now, I hadn’t realized we needed one. “Trusting” or “guileless” aren’t exactly right. If “paranoia” is the suspicion that everyone is secretly harming you, the word we need here describes the suspicion that everyone is secretly helping you.

It’s an extremely pleasant way to go through life, and it happens, in my case, to be obviously and confirmably true. More than one person is secretly trying to help me. (And yes, I know the people you’re trying to help are the S. family, not me. But if you had any idea how I’ve dreaded letting them down, you’d grasp how much you’re helping me.)

Once again, thank you—all of you. I am immeasurably grateful.

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One more thing: I would swear that I saw an email, or a message on Substack or WhatsApp or some other communication modality, from a reader who asked me how to donate directly to JIAS. Perhaps it was another question—I can’t remember exactly, but it was a question about how to contribute, and because I didn’t know the answer off the top of my head, I flagged it, meaning to come back to it.

I remember this distinctly; or at least, I think I do. I’m now asking myself if I imagined it, because I cannot find that message, and I’ve searched everywhere. I’m worried that instead of marking it as flagged, I marked it as junk. If you’re the person who wrote to me, might I ask you to kindly resend your message?

In fact, if you’ve written to me recently but received no reply, even though your message indicated that one was expected, would you please resend your email? I recently updated my OS to run the most recent version of Sonoma. The new version reorganized my email In Box without being asked. I think I have it sorted, now, but I’m worried messages may have slipped through the cracks. If you think yours might have been among them, would you kindly send them again?