Readers of the world, stamp your feet in protest, raise your voices in loud, tempestuous clamor. You have been accused of a most severe thing, by those who pass judgment with knowing glances and somber, wise noddings of their heads. Your crime, you ask? Apathy toward demanding good writing.

Your face blanches; your heart is momentarily stilled. Or not. Perhaps a brief detour from the melodrama is warranted at this point, in the form of, well, some context. At a recent meeting of some various and sundry writers, one particularly skilled writer raised the point that in the Jewish world, writing is a notoriously under-paid profession. If this is news to you, kind reader, I apologize for possibly shattering any entrancing illusions you may have held...of multi-millionaire frum writers, cavorting in their summer homes on eight-figure salaries, occasionally deigning to pluck the keys of their computers to weave together an article or two. :-)

In the course of the conversation, one writer posited her stalwart theory--nay, flaming indictment--which I alluded to at the beginning of this post, namely that the reason why frum writers are, on a whole, woefully underpaid, is because their readers do not demand excellence. Thus, those who employ the services of these writers are not pressured to raise the bar by hiring only cream-of-the-crop, highly talented writers who could then demand top-dollar for their work. This is her theory; I present it to you, gentle reader, and await your opinion.
Is this really true? Is the public willing to acquiesce to whatever comes their way rather than demand what it truly deserves? And do you think this has any connection whatsoever to the compensation of frum writers?
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Wealthy vs. Rich 06/28/2009
 

I have long observed an interesting phenomenon which my Shabbos guests, who are such wonderfully giving people, further drove home for me yesterday. I have seen fantastically wealthy people who dole out dollar-store gifts with all the joy of suffering a root canal. And then there are those people with very little money in the bank who are just so generous, they're falling all over themselves giving to others.

When Chazal (our Sages) say, "Aizehu ashir, hasameach b'chelko", "Who is wealthy? The one who is satisfied with his portion", they were touching on this intriguing phenomenon. Because money is a mindset. You can have a lot of it and be afflicted with an equally enormous scarcity mentality, and boom! There goes your money! You just can't enjoy it, can't spend it, certainly can't share it, because there just isn't enough! And conversely, you can have a modest amount but feel like the richest person in the world, imbued with the ability to share that wealth with others.

It occurs to me that probably the factor that lies at the root of the two perspectives is faith vs. fear. The generous person has faith that s/he will continue to be blessed with sustenance from G-d's plentiful bounty and therefore s/he can afford to share. The stingy person has fear that s/he will be left without enough for even the basic necessities; or that if they give to one or two people, a hundred more will come knocking and there goes the entire bank account.

I have found faith v. fear the most long-running case in my mental Supreme Court--about 31 years and counting, and it promises to be a spectacular showdown. Thing is, I'm not sure who's the prosecution and who's the defense. All I know is that seeing the generosity of our Shabbos guests gives me a wealth of food for thought to chomp on.



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