Recently, I wrote about the phenomenon of writers complaining about not being paid for their work by saying if you’re a professional writer, producing professional-grade work, you’ll get paid work. Because we do, actually, live in a world where vocational aptitude can and will be rewarded (most of the time). Most people will brains prefer the work of professionals, even when a service technically could be done by an amateur.
Dressing up as Ourselves
We like to think of Halloween as a one-day hiatus from being ourselves. It’s our chance to dress up like someone totally different from ourselves, to try on another life of a size. But who are we kidding? That’s not how it works. Every costume I’ve ever seen reveals more about the person wearing it than it does disguise anything. Sometimes it well executed, revealing just how clever, creative or daring a person is. And at others, well, it exposes our insecurities, insensitivity and misunderstandings.
Earning a Nintendo, and other money thoughts
My parents once did an awful and wonderful thing to me. I was, let’s say 11-ish, and I really, really, really wanted a Nintendo. The price of a Nintendo at that time was $99. I earned a base allowance of $5 a week, plus a quarter for every load of laundry I folded. My parents told me that if I wanted something as frivolous as a Nintendo, I was going to have to earn it myself. And so, I started saving. And folding.
Natalie Burg 