Dear Readers,
Having promised you the second edition of Sweet Potato Suppers this spring I feel I should explain what the delay is all about. I am in process of getting permission to publish photos that were taken during the 1970s, The Farm’s heyday and the time of my story. This involves working closely with The Farm Archives Committee, which is charged with preserving and managing the pictures, videos, and soundtracks we created as a group under our “all things in common” agreement. That means that we each have the same rights to these artifacts as anyone has to their personal family collection.
Publication, however, is not so simple. While any member of our wide Farm family who has a story to tell should have the right to use these pictures, no one has the right to publish material that would even inadvertently distort or tarnish the image of The Farm or any of its members. There has to be some oversight of the pictures simply to ensure they are used honestly. On the other hand, that oversight cannot result in restricting honest use or forcing agreement about what happened. Spiritual hippies are not known for agreeing without careful personal inspection. Each person’s story is his or her own.
Then, not all of us had cameras and the people in the pictures are rather more than the usual “family.” From time to time one of the photographers would hand me a print of one of my children or such. Still, I have few pictures of that time–unless I count the many pictures illustrative of Farm life not directly of my family. As you can imagine, publishing these requires a special level of consideration falling somewhere between personal possession and public copyright issues.
Mine is among the first requests for use of these personal/public pictures. The Farm Archives Committee wants to set up a precedent that will guide how all future requests are settled. This requires time. The members of the committee are among the most ethical and compassionate people I know, working from a standard far above the norm seen in the general courts. In fact, they are creating standards and methods for which there are few models. In this creation, they listen patiently to all voices. Hammering out a bit of heaven on earth, as we did when we founded The Farm, takes time. Much as I’m eager to publish the book and get it into your hands, I highly respect this committee’s process and the significance of the work they do.
Please be patient. Sweet Potato Suppers: A Yankee Woman Finds Salvation in a Hippie Village will be out soon in all the glory of text and pictures that honor The Farm and honor that in each of us that knows what is right and true and just. Much Love, Trish
