And you say this why? You think I do this for some ego gratification? You think I answer all the same questions over and over trying not to get too frustrated, AND put up with all the trolls, and haters, becasue I have some ego that needs to be fed?!!??
I don't do it for postcount, I don't do it for the thanks, and I am offended that you think so.
I do it to give back to the communtiy that gave so much to me when I was starting. I do it because I am tired of mis-information, and outdated "common wisdom" that repeatedly gets handed out as gospel, with little or no validity to it. I do it because I hate to see how scared new brewers are of their creations, thinking that if they even look their first brew wrong, it's going to be ruined. I do it to save beer being dumped because the new brewer did one thing "wrong" and is possitive that it's going to turn out bad. I do it to remind folks that this isn't brain surgery that it is a HOBBY and is supposed to be fun.
I don't do it to prove I have bigger knowledge than anyone else, or that I have a bigger "hydrometer" than anyone else.
I do it for the same reason that two Sundays ago, when my girlfriends next door neighbor OD huffing freon that Friday, and his mother found him two days later, that I went in after the cops and coroner took the body away, and cleaned out the blood and **** stained matress and pillows so the family wouldn't see how bad it was when they went in there.
Or sitting for hours with the mother whom walked into the church i was interning at after finding out that her sun had laid his head on a railroad track seconds before a train came, to commit suicide. Just holding her and letting her cry, and rage and vent. And giving up "fun" plans I had that afternoon to do so.
Or spending the hours and days after 9-11 crises counseling people, without getting to grieve on my own...and wallowing in their despair of people who lost friends and family on planes or in the towers...including a prominent minister who lost her Brother in law.
I do it for the same reason I became a minister, to help folks. Not for praise, not for thanks,
but becasue I have skills and knowledge, that allows me to help folks. And I don't mind doing the dirty or repetitive jobs, if it means someone else doesn't have to.
I don't care about praise or thanks or honors, I never have, and it embarrases me when I get those threads on here where people do so. And I thank my brother Homercidal for understanding where I'm comming from.
But it does hurt that YOU think I do it for those shallow reasons like praise or ego.
After all, life isn't always puppies and flowers.
