Self-promotional Clap Trap
The numbers of followers I have on Medium does not have a “K” attached to it. My name does not start with the letter, “J.” About 6 or 7 years ago someone called me a guru and I almost vomited. I realized that I don’t ever, ever want to be called that. It freaked me out.
But I am a member of the wonderful Medium Partner Program even though I am not a paying Medium Member. (Shame on me!) I was hoping that I would make enough on the Medium Partner Program to be able to afford to become a member. It hasn’t happened yet but I sincerely hope it will soon.
Why? Because I’m a happy clapper. I love clapping like crazy when I read something that turns me on. Not being a Medium Member (yet), though, my clapping means absolutely nothing — other than letting the author know that I dug their story. I want my clapping to mean something and that’s why I desperately want to become a member. I want my clapping to mean something, gosh darn it!
Plus I want to read some of those stories from some of my favorite authors who are now locked behind The Wall.
“ Breaking habits often leads to an increased sense of presence. If you take the same road home every day, you don’t see it. Everything is new when you take an alternative route.” — Anna Breslin
Man, I’ve been saying this for years! No one listened to me because I’m not a guru. Thank goodness! It works so much better if people discover it on their own.
But I’ve been driving on the Medium Interstate for over two years and now I want to occasionally take an exit marked, “Members Only.” I want to take that alternative route. I want to break my Medium habit. I want to see what is hidden from my view. I want to clap and have it mean something.
Maybe I need to sell some of my books. I’ve done that repeatedly over the years. I remember selling my hardcover first edition copy of G. I. Gurdjieff’s Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson for ten bucks in order to buy some eggs and butter and bread. That edition now sells for over fifty bucks! That book is over 2100 pages long! It took me a whole week to read it! It weighs like 8 pounds. I actually gained muscle tone just carrying it around for that week.
No, selling books is not the answer. The pain of losing a cherished book is always greater than the gastronomical joy of an eggs and toast breakfast.
Maybe I just need to write the ultimate guru self-help article on Medium and lock it so that I can finally afford Membership. Maybe I can title it, “How to Become a Billionaire By Waking Up an Hour Earlier Each Morning.” That’s what everyone wants to know. Oh, wait a minute! There are already tens upon tens upon tens of thousands of articles on Medium on that very subject!
I guess I’ll have to come up with something different, an alternative approach, a new way of looking at things, a new route to where we are going….
But then again, I bought a lottery ticket today. It’s not something I can afford to do every day. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll win then I can afford to pay for Membership and start clapping my brains out!
Gosh, that would be so much fun!
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You can leave a tip for me here.
Or you can clap for my short story: How To Trigger a Nuclear Explosion
