You may remember that some asshole broke the window in my car. They didn't get anything (thankfully), but these things are really a pain.
There's a real sense of an invasion of privacy. Someone went through my shit. And I don't even know what they did or didn't do.
I don't even like it when people start poking around on my phone.
I gaff taped a garbage bag to the window, which was fine, I guess, but I was supposed to pick Victoria Westcott up at the Canadian border in 2 days and I wasn't so sure it was a great idea to drive all the way to LA like that. How safe is that?
Not to mention that there was, you know, lots of broken glass in my car.
I'm on a pretty tight budget with A Year Without Rent, so there isn't really a whole lot of extra room for stuff like this. So I put up a PayPal button on the post about my window, thinking that maybe someone would throw in $50 to help defray the $327 cost. $100, tops.
Within 24 hours, people had contributed $301.
Holy. Shit.
I thought about putting the list of names up, but there's something more private about something like this. I'm pretty sure I've emailed (or tweeted) all of them a thank you.
I was able to get the window fixed and drive down the coast safely. All because some anonymous (and some not anonymous) people were kind enough to help. It's kind of amazing that when something shitty happens to you, there's people who will help you out, expecting nothing in return. Simply to do something nice.
It's overwhelmingly awesome.
Filmmaker Lucas McNelly is spending a year on the road, volunteering on indie film projects around the country, documenting the process and the exploring the idea of a mobile creative professional. You can see more from A Year Without Rent at the webpage. His feature-length debut is now available to rent on VOD. Follow him on Twitter: @lmcnelly.
