SUMMING UP OF A YEAR OF QUIET DESPERATION

SUMMING UP OF A YEAR OF QUIET DESPERATION

James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.
© November 30, 2009

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”

Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862), Walden

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TO MY EX-AGENT

It is obvious by now that you've never heard from John Wiley & Sons about the publication of “Creative Selling” and “Confident Thinking.” Don't you think that is a little discourteous and odd?

I'm dropping any interest in that line of thinking, and moving on. My life has been a series of decades of change, and I guess this new one promises once again such an omen.

During this past decade I've seen the rise and fall of The Naples Institute (TNI), your withdrawing as my agent, the surprising silence of driving force for TNI, who incidentally wrote me recently saying he joined a corporation and has his entrepreneur spirit on hold as well. The world proceeds forward in quiet desperation.

MY BLOG

I've probably said all that I can think of saying and so my missives, which have already tapered off, will most likely fad away. There are some 450 missives published on my blog as matters now stand. I no longer make any effort, however, to see them published.

LIVE AS A NOVEL

Life is a series of connections and disconnects, and of course, reconnections. What is positive about this is that people stay connected to me only as long as they need me and then move on. Hopefully, they then connect with others who need them to keep their courage alive. It is courage that is in short supply. We possess more hope than we need.

Schopenhauer was right. Life is like a novel unfolding with all the parts fitting nicely into place as the book of life is moving to its epilogue. I find this somewhat liberating. I will now worry less about the state of the nation and state of the world, or my role in it, which one might assume reading my missives has been to provide a primer of one man's perspective of the world "as it is."

THE UNREALITY OF THE TIMES

There is little reality in the world today, but unreality is a luxury the world can no longer afford. We focus so much on fiscal responsibility and currency fluctuation when it is individual responsibility and emotional currency that are in jeopardy.

My tolerance, indeed, my capacity to accept the patina of what has become society has hit the wall. When you hit the wall, and we all do at some time in our lives, whether we will admit it or not, the best action is to retreat, move back and laterally to renegotiate alternative action. It is obvious society is not capable of this, which makes it all the more essential that the individual does it on his own to survive.

HOLLOW MEN

My luxury is that I can read and write, think and wonder at my heart's content. My misconception was that people were of a mind to be stimulated to do the same. T. S. Eliot was right. We are hollow men. Why I would attempt to change this is a matter for others to ponder. Hollowness was true in Eliot’s lifetime why should it be any different in mine?

ANGER AS MOTIVATOR

Once I was told that my greatest motivation was anger. I now know that to be true. The problem with anger is that you come to own everyone else's problems. My anger has been how the system is geared to exploit us little people. What has confounded me, but I must accept it to move on, is that most people don't mind being exploited and will continue to find celebrities and heroes more real than themselves, and will continue to be distracted by all the toys the rich invest in and the nerdy create, to keep 10 percent in control of the other 90 percent.

The Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League built a one billion stadium, and now a family of four must fork over $758 to attend a single game. How do people react? They fill the stadium. I rest my case.

What better way to deal with anger then to write a novel?

THE SOUTH AFRICA NOVEL TO BE

My reason for being so tentative about my South Africa novel is that I've always felt inadequate to translate what I learned into a moving commentary of a time, place and space. There is much anger in this book. It is testament of a confused lad in the middle of his meteoric rise only to find that he could not escape identity with the "have nots" while breaking bread with the "haves."

That said working on the novel, whatever it turns out to be, will be my hobby until it or I am finished. If this sounds like a New Year's Resolution, it isn't. I've never made them and don't plan to start now.

I wish you well in the remainder of this year, and a happy and productive one in 2010. Believe me it will be a challenge.

Be always well,

Jim