>What I think you (and we) have to offer is just exactly
>what you have said - better information. Free advice is worth what you pay
>for it, so take this in that light. Downsizing might be an answer.

Kathleen, I think I just joined your ranks with my recent posts about the pumps.

Allison & Pat,
Reading the digest I saw my post and almost skipped it. Scanned it anyway,
and, wouldnt you know, right in the middle was a huge (at worst) "foe paw"
or (at best) a double entandre'. There should have been a paragraph break
between "information" and "free." I meant a change of focus. *My* free
advice about the pumps, not *your* information to mothers.

Then I re-read it. In light of a lot of the traffic about "pay," "non-pay,"
"credentials," we might remember there's a difference between "free" and
"cheap," and between "asked for" and "butting in." I "butted in" to A & P's
problem with "free" advice. The moms that come are "asking for" our
expertise, regardless of our level of credentialling. Seems to me knowing
our limits is really important. I admire those of you who have clear ethical
(as opposed to legal) boundaries and know what your services are worth,
regardless of the pay.

*Long rambling story hopefully making an analogy follows* Feel free to ignore*

In a time not too long ago, and in a country not too far away, there was a
famine. All the people were starving. A single mother came to the Rabbi's
door asking for food for her three children. The Rabbi responded, "We have
nothing to share with you, for we, too, are starving." As the woman turned
away in dejection, the Rabbi remembered the pearls his wife had. They had
been in the family many generations and were extremely beautiful. Rushing
upstairs he brought the pearls and gave them to the poor woman. His wife,
seeing the Rabbi give away her heirloom, began to berate him. "How could you
do this? Those pearls were priceless!" The Rabbi rushed down the street
after the woman, calling for her to stop. Reaching her, the Rabbi said,
"Woman, these pearls are very, very, expensive...Don't sell them for too
little."

Richard G."Dick" Copeland
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