As you may recall, I fell into a creek during my trip along the Blue Ridge Parkway earlier this year. This picture is the reason why.

You see, I took some shots of the creek and then saw the flowers on the other side. Perhaps it would be a better picture, I thought, if I could get those flowers in the foreground. So I tiptoed my way across to the opposite bank, but lost my balance and fell in halfway across. Thanks to my instinctive sense of self-preservation, however, I sacrificed my body in order to keep the camera from getting wet.

In retrospect, the obvious question is: why didn’t I just take off my shoes and walk across normally? Beats me. That sure would have been smart.

The other question is: was it worth it? I would say probably not, since the flowers aren’t prominent enough to make a big enough difference. But your mileage may vary.

May 7, 2019 — Otter Creek, Blue Ridge Parkway, Virginia

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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