Toadstools and Laptops

I have an incredibly fond memory of hefting a Dionysian altar over my shoulder and riding 40 blocks from Dver Winter’s house along Amazon Creek to my home when I lived in Eugene.  She’d painted it and used it for awhile, but after she altered her practice and no longer needed it, gifted it to me.

The altar’s kinda amazing and radically changed my magical and devotional practices.  Enchanting items suddenly went very, very fast, like I was performing magic in a sacred grove rather than in my bedroom.

One thing I remember about visiting her humble home (one of the most under-statedly elegant abodes, artfully put together but not ‘interior decorated,’) was the fact she didn’t have much technology in there.  Hand-made shrines, masks, pieces of forest and its denizens, bones and glass and painted-things but only an obviously old, possibly-found computer.  It’d surprised me, frankly, that she’d done any writing on it at all.

I purchased my first computer about 17 months ago, by the way.  Every other computer I’d used was one someone found in an alley and somehow made it work, or was a partner’s computer, or a work computer.  I actually harangued myself for weeks before purchasing it, wondering if I could really justify spending 250 dollars on something that obviously many others long ago decided was an essential aspect of modern society.

That laptop, a discounted item at Target, is what I’ve done almost all of my writing on since, so I guess it was a good idea.

Dver could use one, too.  She’s running an indigogo campaign to purchase one.  From what I imagine, she likely harangued herself over the very idea of needing any such thing.  Trust me–asking for money is very, very difficult.

So, hey–please consider donating to it.  She’s giving away some awesome stuff, too.