The Tutor wrote a beautifully eloquent post about the nature of giving, and in particular, the giving heart of the person who funded the Kitchen.
I happen to know the person who funded IT Kitchen, and a little about his motives. I will not betray his confidences, but would like to present this a model of grassroots giving. The donor does not have big bucks. He is a reader of Wealth Bondage and Gift Hub where we discuss giving as an antidote for too much getting and spending, too much consumerism, branding, and propagandistic manipulation. He gives blogs anonymously and gives anonymously, dropping a few bucks here and there into paypal buckets for blogger friends in need. When publicly thanked, as he has been at least once, he cringes. He feels that he has given so little, why should he be publicly thanked? I think he may have thought of Shelley when I blogged my gratitude for all the help she gave me in moving my site from Radio to MT. I suspect he wanted not only for Shelley to share her expertise, but to keep alive the spirit of giving, of solidarity and common purpose that had been so characteristic of the early days of blogging, when we all found one another as neighbors in cyberspace, and hung out in each other’s world’s as we might in one another’s living room or kitchen.
I agree with Tutor about the person who donated money for the Kitchen. I hope in the end that he’s happy about the effort, though I feel I’ve let him down. Not because of the results–as someone reminded me gently yesterday, the Kitchen was a success. People did come together and contribute interesting bits, and we did have a chance to experiment around with the concepts.
No, I felt I let him down because I was disappointed that the Kitchen didn’t achieve global acclaim, especially from those who partake of the royal nod of favor and approval. In the end, I betrayed the concepts underlying this event.
So I have to disclaim the kind words that Tutor said about me in the rest of the missive, because I haven’t been as generous or gracious as either the donor, or others who spent time doing Kitchen Duty.