The Yankee Dollar

I was reading a caching forum yesterday where someone asked about hiding a cache that would make them money. Somehow, a cacher would have to pay to find the cache, possibly by mechanical means or perhaps a tip jar. The resounding consensus in the comments was “No.” Most people fell back to the guidelines prohibiting such a placement. Me, on the other hand? It got under my skin for a number of reasons.

I am at a point where I am kind of sick to death of hearing about money connected to geocaching. I’ve barely cached in any other countries (only in Mexico and Canada, close to the borders), so I don’t know whether this is a uniquely American sickness or not (I have trouble believing it’s a big concern in Germany, but what do I know?). One big reason it annoys me so is that whenever I describe geocaching to muggles, I frequently get asked, “Do you find any money?” As if there is no value to it other than financial enrichment. Sure, we’ve all found a coin or the occasional dollar bill in a cache, but whether or not we’ve taken it, that’s not the point. Another big reason is that I wonder why it seems foreign to people that anyone volunteers their time and energy. Every time someone places a cache, they are volunteering to make the game that much more robust for the next cacher, whether a local or a passerthrough. Sometimes, it’s a humble effort; sometimes it is an unparalleled labor of love. But each one is given selflessly. It feels gauche to sully it all with the exchange of filthy lucre.

Now, don’t get me wrong … I’m not arguing about all this on some kind of “purity” basis. Everyone decides what their level of geocaching orthodoxy is. There are some things others have no problem with that I find distasteful. There are some things I’m cool with that would get me disapproving looks from others. I’m also not looking at this as some kind of class issue (many sports [especially in the early days of the Olympics] for years touted the amateur over the professional as a mechanism to keep out competitive but poor people). I even note a certain amount of (for lack of a better term) hypocrisy on my part, considering I have a Patreon (though I feel it helps only with the caching-adjacent artistic endeavors and not my caching itself). But why does everything have to be viewed through a lens of profit? Why does a pastime have to be monetized? Why does nobody seem to think about the intangible gains to be found?

How many people have I met because of caching? How many places have I been because of it? How many conversations and laughs have come from it? How many good times have I had with my children because of it? I have spent a lot of money on caching, and most of the returns cannot be measured in dollars and cents.