Truth and poverty, it is the hard way

Two things about this blog over the years that bear repeating.  Even though in the beginning, the idea was to make money, I decided to forego that even if the possibility existed to make money with this blog.  Why?  Money corrupts.  Money makes you subject to the whims of your benefactors.  In other words, if somebody gives you money, they can influence what you have to say.  If you displease them, they can remove your financial support.  This has a chilling effect on the truth.

The other is truth itself.

No claim on ultimate truth here.  Truth is hard to find because deception is the rule, not the exception.  The world is always trying to fool you, and yes, it more often than not succeeds.  So, perhaps the truth is not the word I should be using, it should be the quest for truth.  For it may not be found.  It is hidden under a mountain of lies.

All of this is hard to do.  Even if you succeed, nobody will care.  So why do it?

Why indeed.  But the truth is better than a lie.  Good things are hard.  At least I'd like to think so.

Maybe I will do it out of plain old stubborness.

Yesterday I saw a story about Jerry Van Dyke.  It was claimed that he raped his daughter, and then pimped her out to other movie stars.  After everything that I just wrote about truth, a story like this may be a vicious lie, or it may be a sad truth.  Which is it?

This much is true:  His daughter committed suicide.  She also was a porn actress.  Since this happened to her, the accusation against her father takes on the possibility of being true.  Why would she do this to herself unless something drove her to it?  She was also said to be a substance abuser.  Others may say that it was this that pushed her over the edge.

Was there a way out for her?  She may not have seen a way out.  Maybe suicide is the easy way out for someone who does not believe in the hereafter.  One moment of pain, and all of that horrible stuff ends.  But what if that is not true?  An eternity in hell that is far worse?  To deal with the pain in your life might be harder, but the result could be a lot better.  Death will come eventually no matter what you do to prevent it.  Better to be alive than dead.  Even if you hurt, you are alive.  If you don't kill yourself, maybe you won't go to hell.  If you believe there is no hell, then at least you lived as best you could while you lived.  That would be better.