I was looking into my AdSense last night and discovered that the system works similarly to how YouTube advertising works in the sense that language over the PG rating is unlikely to lead to monetization of content. While making money from this blog would be a nice bonus – and ads will be staying just in case -, I will not be changing up the content for that.
It would be a move without integrity, to neuter the catharsis and the journey for monetary gain. A disservice to myself to be dishonest and a disservice to the reader, you. As overly dramatic as it may be, I remember Meditations 6.2:
“If you are doing your proper duty let it not matter to you whether you are cold or warm, whether you are sleepy or well-slept, whether men speak badly or well of you, even whether you are on the point of death or doing something else: because even this, the act in which we die, is one of the acts of life, and so here suffices to ‘make the best move you can’. – Meditations 6.2
If I’m here, sharing my stoic and spiritual journey it is my duty to do so in the proper way. Like a duty of care and quality assurance that I’m not doing it half-assed or with self-imposed censorship to try to rake in that ad money. I will cover topics that may be triggering. This includes: death, abuse, addiction, illness, and many more. Why? Because how can I talk about life while missing out key components? It’s a fraud to think that I can speak about life without death. It’s like talking about the night sky and not mentioning stars.
And, if a few fucks, shits, wankers and bollocks’ slip in: I’m sorry that I’m not sorry. Sometimes no other words will do to describe some shit. Aside from being a stoic, I enjoy brevity and swearing in comedy which you can blame The Thick of It and Frankie Boyle for. I’ve not lied to myself or the reader through this medium. I don’t plan on it either so I’m not going to censor nor rephrase because it may earn me some money. It’s not a career, it’s a service to myself and a service to you.
“Lying, too is a sin against the same goddess: her name is Truth, and she is the original cause of all that is true.” – Meditations 9.1.2
I’m not even sure about the definition of family friendly as who knows what that means anymore. I know a few families who watched Game of Thrones together as a Saturday night ritual to replace the monotony of X-Factor and Saturday Night Takeaway. Compared to that, my half-baked musings on philosophy and the divine are pretty bloody tame.
Z3N0
P.S. I know this isn’t a proper post, but it is. There’s a lesson in there somewhere for me and someone else should you or they find it useful. That lesson: don’t sell out.