The Moonlight Chronicles

I got my first Moonlight Chronicle way back in 2004. I loved it and subscribed to a couple of future issues. I got so hooked on that great feeling of opening the mailbox and seeing that small but thick envelope nestled there, with one or other MC stamp and Dan’s crazy handwriting on it.

So I requested all the MCs I didn’t have in one big order. What a feeling, getting that big box and sitting down for days on end to read through all of them! It was one of the most worthwhile splurges I ever made (did?), a close second to buying the complete collection of Glen Gould playing Bach!

I kept on receiving my MCs until issue 49. Then, for some reason, probably the one we call “life”, I failed to subscribe to new issues. I almost forgotten all about it when Amie discovered the big tin box I had stored them in.

She loves books, of course, especially small ones that easily fit her small hands. And she loves drawing and drawings. Books + drawings = Moonlight Chronicles!

She sat down and “read” through half of them! Commenting:

– Mama, Mama, there’s a house in here!

Leafing through two more, her frown growing more and more threatening. Comment:

– Mama, this is no good! These books don’t have houses in them.

Then, flipping through the next issue, with great relief:

– Ah! There‘s a house!

I sat next to her on the floor, also reading, haphazardly, issue 41, then 30, then 7. I know Dan’s life story, so I didn’t get lost in the chronology. I think it was the first time in days that I was so relaxed!

Dan’s a goodhearted hobo who lives an enchanted life in a tepee and several handmade constructions (“hobbit-holes”) in a meadow by a creek near Joseph in Eastern Oregon. His life is enchanted – he searches for his style in drawing, a smaller ecological footprint, a closer bond with nature, and ruminates about life. But his little journals also reflect the hard side of that life, the isolation from his family and the discomfort of living simply. And all that in such direct language and illustrated, of course, by his neat little drawings.

Check out this cool documentary about Dan on the Oregon Public Television (not very recent, but it still reflects his life).

– Mama, are there more of these? (Amie asked)

– Of course!

– Can we get them?

– Of course!

13 more Chronicles have been written since I jumped off that wagon. We saved some money with our so-far-successful $200/week regimen, and with DH on board, I wrote to Dan and am now joyfully anticipating catching up! So is Amie!