Money isn’t the root of all evil: it’s the root of much stress, or relaxation.
There’s nothing about poverty that’s virtuous, other than simplicity.
There’s nothing about money that brings happiness: we have to make friends with ourselves, rich or poor, in order to be cheerful.
Working a 100 hours a week, broke for 10 years, the sudden maturation of elephant’s staff and support from our community have allowed me to fix my roof just before the winter for the first time in six years; to get a refrigerator for the first time in three years, to consider buying a (cheap) vintage vehicle, my first car in nearly five years. It’s enabled me to go to the dentist three times (the first time thanks to my grandma and aunt) for the first time in 12 years (no cavities, but teeth wearing down). All of this is just in time, and all of this takes time.
Stability is a virtue. Money helps stability.
The next phase for elephant will be exhausting, and fun: now that we have a great, low-drama staff, inspired and cohesive, and a stable community, we can begin to reach for the stars—to finally begin to fulfill our mission of effecting real and lasting change in education, enlightening entertainment and the quality of journalism (the fourth estate) in a new media context.
So thank you, you. If you share an elephant article, thank you. When you do so, you’re supporting indie, still-small, grassroots-created (our readers are our writers) media with a conscience, and our efforts to make this here rag-tag outfit mainstream and available to those beyond our core readership or choir.
A tired, happy, relieved founding editor,
Waylon Hart Lewis
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