Money Just Complicates Absolutely Everything

Sunset overlooking Playa Brasilito shot from the sadly now gone Lucy's, a surfer themed restaurant near the turn to Playa Flamingo. They had an amazing deep fried avocado salad.

One thing I've been thinking a lot about lately is money, the lack of it, and all the sleazy actions someone will take just to get it. I look at folks like our president Donald Trump, and just know he has much less money that the image he strives to project. Money is intrinsically tied up in so many people's notions of 'self worth' when it really shouldn't be.

Can money insulate you from many of the harsh realities of life? Sure it can, but I'm not so sure that's always a positive. Going from having money to not having money is a harsh mistress, because you realize suddenly how cushioned and insular you were and now you're having to clean out the crisper drawer in the fridge like everyone else. It feels like a betrayal. It happened to me when I was tossed out of my family in my teens. I know what it feels like.

I'm not talking about my own reality right now, this is not about myself, tomorrow the guys come to clean the pool and the gardener is scheduled. Yesterday the plumber came and the crew to pump our our cesspool. For us things are as they always are, money flows in from investments and retirement. We spend like always on food, electric bills, auto repair bills, and medicines.

I am not even talking about those around me that I pay to work here, and I use and pay more during the COVID shut downs because poverty here is getting worse. Or those in the States.  I have nothing but compassion for during this time of job losses and mortgage payments due. The governments of Costa Rica and the United States are going to have to step up, and help those on the bottom or this is going to be very bad. COVID rates are climbing here and there, and I don't see a way out unless governments shut everything down and issue basic incomes to everyone.

What I am thinking about today is the nebulous and strange world of online.  Not working online for another company, no not at all. But the world of new horizons in the last ten years, the world of the 'online creator' I don't mean something like I do, writing for a media company either. I mean those that until recently I was unaware of, YouTube creators. It's a world I have known nothing about, even as I do a few very short videos for work at the urging of the powers that be. I'm not comfortable doing them at all. It's a challenge on many levels for me. But I've been asked to, so I do what they want.

There's a certain former Patheos author who is a YouTube reality tv gossip creator now. You've no doubt heard me talk about her. Here's what you don't know about her. Her motives.  Her reasons for doing her videos are almost entirely financial. She brags she makes 25K a month from the videos. I must be a naive shut in because I never dreamed that was even possible at all. It's a very crummy reason to do anything.

That's not at all why I've worked on No Longer Quivering for nearly ten years now. I'll never become rich doing it, and I've never pulled down the kind of major bread this lady is talking about. I've been simply happy to have made enough during the years Patheos was independent and then owned by Time Warner to pay for my son's housing and living costs during his internship, and later my daughter's housing expenses in college. It helped us through that incredibly expensive time of getting our kids through college and internships in the Virginia burbs near D.C. one of the highest costs of living areas in the entire U.S.

Now that the platform is owned by BN Media my wages are much less than that. No one would do this for money, it's just not financially worth it. Luckily I am in a position now where everyone is through college and settled into life, and we have more than enough investment money coming in every month where what little I earn I blow on my Amazon account. Books aren't just going to buy themselves!

I do it for a couple of different reasons. I have a passion for what I am doing. I love the idea of saving just one single person from hell I went through at the hands of my old quiverfull church. I want to snatch up and protect all the young girls victimized as the hands of Steven Anderson's teenage sons. Sometimes I feel like the person in the darkness, in the rain, standing in front of the bridge that's been washed away with a single lantern yelling that the bridge is out, to stay safe, to get away while you can. That's my main goal.

The second thing is that I love to write. Always have, always will. It's deeply satisfying to do something that is your passion in service to warning others away from something awful.

It sure ain't money because there's no amount of money worth the harassment of petty awful trolls, or the supporters of Steven Anderson.

One thing I would change, do differently, is that I would have refused to share the pay from the months I made the most money, when Josh Duggar's scandal came out. I would have refused to share any of my hard earned money with the lady that started NLQ and kept showing up to shake me down on high volume months. Recently she asked me to give her the site back. I said no. I know how unpredictable  and unsteady she is.

So back to motives, the motives of this YouTuber are just one big one. Make as much money as possible. She does not care who she has to step on, lie about, treat like dirt or harass. I had no idea about this the many times we used to talk, just like I had no clue I was being quoted. I had my headknocking with her, and yes, I have still not heard one word from her, much less the apology she owes me.

Every time I turn around now, when I'm over it all, I see another scandal she's attached herself too. She's fighting with so many other YouTubers now I really need to draw up a chart and post it here. Why? Money. She's bragged to me that fighting with others drives her hits, which drives her payday.

Add in all her claims of being friends with the members of tv reality shows that are simply not true and you have one very slimy person who will do anything for money. Just take a look at what Olivia Plath of "Welcome to Plathville" had to say:

This alone is a  good reason why you should not watch this woman. She lies. She pretends to exclusive information. She stalks others. She starts drama with content creators in an attempt to shut down any criticisms. She needs to put down the computer and spent time with her family, and stop chasing money.

Today she gave me quite the laugh by attacking me again and again under different sock puppets on social media. I merely blocked her without a word. She went into the Reddit I was reading and down voted every thread. This is not the behavior of a sane person. Money might not have created the mental obsessiveness, but it sure it driving it!

If you're going to watch YouTube there are literally millions of great content creators. I love Ask Mr. Atheist's Jimmy Snow, God Is Gray, The Legal Eagle and Trae Crowder of the Liberal Redneck to name a few. They all manage to put their own twist and style on things we're all talking and thinking about, the genius of a real creator, not the regurgitation of a copycat.