It’s a fine line, as I was responding to a long e-mail from someone who claimed to be an astrologer and liked to read my material – for the insight and astrology point-of-view. It’s not the first time I’ve gotten such notes, “I’m an astrologer, too” is the meat of the text, “so let’s talk astrology.”
This is where the trouble starts. Or ends because I don’t have a lot of time to spend with other astrologers who rely on my work to help them. Not for free, anyway.
I suppose I should be flattered.
I can’t immediately place the source, but the way I understand it, what I seem to recall seeing, a hobby is an activity or pursuit where folks get together and share information about that activity or pursuit. Hobbyists enjoy getting together to talk about what they do, the finer points of collecting something, or breeding something, or doing something – bragging rights. It’s my business, though, not something I just do for amusement.
I joke about this stuff, and I’m continuously studying various aspects of human behavior. Face it, people fascinate me. Humanity, with all its foibles, inherently interests me. Through years and years of trial, tribulation, and a lot of hit & miss effort, I arrived at what I can, **and can’t**, do for free. Sometimes I step over the line, and I do a little too much \\pro bono\\, but that’s my burden, my ill-mannered business sense.
I haven’t run many trivia question lately. It’s just too hard to come up with a subject that can’t be plugged into a search engine to garner a fast answer. Which is part of the problem with “free”. Plus, an appalling number of responses to the trivia questions in the last year have been dishearteningly disengaged, \\i.e.\\, they didn’t read the whole question.
What I find so annoying is the way some people presume familiarity, assume some bond that I don’t get. Maybe this is a writer’s question when dealing with the reading public. Maybe I’m too accessible. But I rather enjoy what I do. I’ve etched out an existence with it.
I’ve got a friend, in the legal department at the phone company. First time I met her, I joked about “fixing my phone bill,” and she had a typical, Sagittarius-sarcastic retort for my comment and a tired roll-of-the-eyes gesture. It’s not like she hasn’t heard **that** comment before. That first time, I tried to get by with the “I’m only kidding” comment, but I don’t think she bought it.
“So I hear you’re into astrology,” the conversation starts, “so am I. Do you ever read Cainer, Susan Miller, or Kelli Fox?” I’m sure that those writers don’t consider me a peer. In fact, that last one created a legal headache for me.
Yet that’s innate, egalitarian beauty of the web itself – it decides what stays and what doesn’t. Look at who’s still standing at the end of the dot-bust.
I happen to really love the work that I’ve chosen, but don’t expect me to do this stuff for free. Got a question? Questions are free, but answers, from me, cost money. It’s a lot like asking my friend at the phone company to fix an error on my phone bill. The phone company still owes me a refund.