My Windows XP crashed Monday afternoon. I'm posting with an old laptop, but can't send a link because my precious list of carefully selected readers, you among them, crashed too. I'm posting this letter to let you know, will send it as an email when my list returns. If you are reading this as email, I'm back in business.
Why do I post? Why this blog?
"The past is a foreign country," it is said, and since I go back to WW2, I grew up in the past, which makes me a foreigner in the present. My hope is that you are interested in hearing a voice from the past. I, in turn, am intensely interested in hearing your voice, as a Comment or in email.
I don't expect to be read every time I post, content to be allowed to send notices after each, which has been six times a week since June, 2011. When any reader requests to be removed from my list, I remove it promptly. There have been few, but each hurts. One of the few came from someone who said, "I don't know you." I removed her, of course, sadly because by never reading my posts, she never would. I hope that those who read, even once in a while, can at least comprehend my point of view, even though you may differ. I treasure readers who differ strongly yet keep reading.
I add names of those I know or meet, also from emails sent by friends, colleagues, and arts groups. My list now is close to 300. I differentiate myself from SPAM as follows:
I will never try to sell you anything (except an idea or two).
I will never ask you to do anything except read, and maybe comment on my posts.
I will never allow a paid ad to appear.
I write about four of the five major components of my life: WW2, dancing with Martha Graham and on Broadway, teaching dance, and the astonishing doings of our wondrous world. The fifth, marriage and family, is not for blogging.
Most sincerely,
Stuart Hodes