That Song by Eddie Vedder From That Movie with Julia Roberts, or, Audience Participation

[Editor's Note: It struck me, last week when I established my next quest of getting in shape, that such a quest was a solitary one. Herein lies a quest with those in the audience who wish to participate in mind.]

In the latter half of 2001 my brother and I were feeling particularly isolated in a way that neither one of us could articulate very well (due to my mother's illness), and a friend of mine recommended a book entitled "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius," by Dave Eggers. In brief, the book was a slightly fictionalized account of Eggers's struggle to raise his youngest brother after both of his parents died of cancer only months apart of each other. The book was graphic, hilarious (my funniest moment was reading the copyright page), touching, and amazingly healing for both my brother and I. Ever since that book we've been loyal Eggers readers.

After moving from Lake Forest, Illinois to San Francisco, and establishing a publishing hub of his own in the Bay Area, Eggers started a non-profit organization in San Francisco called 826 Valencia, named after the address of the organization. If you live in the Bay Area and have never been, it's an interesting experience. The study areas are fronted by a Pirate Store and one of the quirkiest storefronts you will ever encounter. The Pirate Store sells anything a pirate could ever need (from tar and feathers, to glass eyes and eye patches--no foolin'), as well as paperback and hardback published writings of the students who join the 826 family, regardless of age from 5 to 18. (You grow up, and you have to move on...just like Peter Pan. If you don't want to grow up, you can mentor and tutor kids on weeknights and Sundays--but more on that in a moment.) Eventually Eggers expanded this organization to one called 826 National, which got my attention during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina when they set up a temporary chapter in New Orleans and Houston. At that point I wanted to get involved, and started tutoring on alternate Sundays of the month at the San Francisco location during the school year for a majority of the years since. (I took 2008-2009 off due to personal issues.) The kids who came to these sessions soon became the closest thing to me having kids to teach and love--and not just with writing mentorship. They came in on Sundays wanting to work on all kinds of homework, from math to biology to history to reading, and I jumped in and helped best I could. They made me laugh and I tried to give them the same, they taught me something and I tried to do the same. And, of course, lucky me--I got the priviledge to teach. That's always the love I go back to, no matter child or adult.

Last year 826 Valencia held its first ever 8/26 Day Write-A-Thon, held on August 26th and a fundraiser to celebrate nine years in the City. I didn't make the effort to do it last year--to my recollection I had shipper out at Grainger at that time due to paternity leave, and I didn't have a relationship with even my writing group at that point. This year is different. This year I'm doing this, because I'm passionate about the cause, because I'm a sucker for any excuse to blow half a gallon of ink on fourteen dead trees, and, maybe through my involvement, one other person will find their passion, too. Here are the details of this year's event, and I welcome the help of any readers who want to help with this quest.

Now, let me be ABUNDANTLY CLEAR, here. I don't like soliciting. Over the next three weeks I will be posting reminders of my quest on Facebook and Twitter, but they are just REMINDERS...because I don't want anyone saying, "I didn't know you were doing that and I would've sponsored you" because they don't read my blog. If there's one thing I struggle with, it's a Facebook or Twitter message that informs people that if they loved me they'd sponsor me for "Save The Whales" or something. That's not my intent. My intent is to open up the door for you to get involved in something fun, if you are so inclined. Your level of participation is up to you.

What you can do (any one or more of the following):

• Sponsor me for one written page of your choice, at $10/page. By "one page of your choice," see choices to follow in a moment. You can also sponsor me for more than one page, but please, no fractions of pages. My math stinks. That's why I'm a writer and literature freak.
• Have patience with my occasional Facebook/Twitter updates through the month of August, up to 8/26. I don't see a problem with this since some folks block me on Facebook (I have more followers on Twitter) or since most of my Facebook friends have so many friends that they miss most of my updates, but just sayin'.
• Stay quiet and say a prayer for the success of myself and the other writers jumping in on this.

For those who choose to sponsor me at $10/page, your page(s) can be written in any of the following formats of your choice:

• Blog post (dedicated to you or a subject of your choice)
• Fiction
• Poetry
• Letter (to you, to a friend, to a relative, of recommendation, to an editor, etc)
• Advertisement
• Obituary
• Review (movies, restaurants, books, albums, you name it)
• Or anything else you can think of. The only limit is I won't write legal documents, death threats, or porn. I'm open to everything else.

For those sponsoring at $10/page, the following action can be taken, either singularly or combined, with your page(s):

• Published in my blog, in Notes From Sea Level, with a credit line to you
• Submitted to 826 Valencia as proof of our combined devotion
• Submitted only to you for your descendants to open in 50 years to marvel at ("Look! Who wrote this great stuff about Dad/Mom?")
• Locked up in my safe-keeping to remember you by
• Submitted to a publication of your choice. In this case, you get the money from the publication if I'm published or the rejection letter if I'm not.
• Any combination of the above or any other outcome of your choice

Now, finally...my sponsor goal.

I'm from the Midwest. As Garrison Keillor would say, we have low, "aw-shucks-ma'am" expectations. When I headed up a Red Cross recruitment with Grainger back in 2007, I told my peers that I would be happy if ONE OTHER PERSON joined with me. Everyone else I got to join was frosting on the cake. (In that case, I got 89 tablespoons of frosting--rich, baby.) I am sponsoring myself for four pages for this event--two for me, and two in the name of my mom (that's another quest post, later in the month). I only ask for one other sponsor, but I will write up to 30 pages. (No worries, folks...I have EIGHT HOURS AND TWENTY-SIX MINUTES. I should be able to clear 30 pages in that time...depending on your choice of typed or hand-written.) With me and my four pages, that means if that one other person wants to sponsor me for $260, the rest of the potential sponsors are out of luck. But if you want just a page, for fun...I'd rather have 26 sponsors. The bigger the party the better. :)

All I'm hoping for is one. That person will be the cake...any more than that, frosting. (Yum.) But if I don't get one...that's okay, too. I get to write a couple of pages for me, a couple of pages for my mom, and watch other, more talented writers with more deserved readerships write their contributions.

If you are interested in sponsoring, please message me for details of where you can send your sponsorship. I plan on writing at 826 Valencia that day, or, if it's jam-packed, writing at a series of cafes in the area and stopping by 826 at 8 pm to drop off donations that are sent to me directly. (You do not have to send me donations directly--they can be sent to 826 Valencia directly if you feel more comfortable doing that, and that's information that I can include in the message back to you.) If you are sponsoring me, please e-mail me/submit sponsorships by August 22nd at the latest--you won't get a writing for sponsorships after that point, but any donations submitted after that point will be forwarded to 826 Valencia the following week (I pass by there every Wednesday night for my writing group meeting).

Questions? Comments? Message me at Facebook or my e-mail at jostraveler@gmail.com.

Thanks for reading such a long post. It's good to have you along for this quest, in any way, shape, or form.

Onward, dear reader.

P.S. - The title of this post of Life for Rent comes from this inspiration. The video sucks but the audio was the best I could find. We all walk the long road, she sings softly as she picks up the next pen, the next sheet of paper...