Help Wanted

[Wolf DeVoon]

Help Wanted

By Wolf DeVoon

Schaapskapf maven and zen master Charlie Reitzner used to say "What's laid is played" -- and, boy howdy, ain't it the truth! I'd give anything to find some way to improve one of my articles or theories. Of course I'm grateful to discover an error now and then (I wrongly predicted that the Euro currency would implode, which it hasn't yet.) But I sure wish blunders happened a little more regularly.

Even my worst decisions turned out well in the long run. I sleep the sleep of the just -- about three hours or so with nightmares of prison, vicious ex-girlfriends, hallways and elevators that go nowhere, guns that jam, thugs who win, always pursued and outnumbered, doomed to failure. I wake and listen to the radio or watch TV, count the days remaining and symptoms of declining health, then drift off again. On a good night, I harvest two or three tumultuous escapades.

It's nervewracking and exhausting, but action-adventure dreams are the stuff of emotion. Consider the opposite case: nothing ever amiss or desperate, nobody home, dead to drama. If you don't dream with Technicolor lucidity and fight for your freedom (often losing battles), then nothing much is happening spiritually when you're awake and fully conscious. I made the decision to dream long ago. I also give fantasy speeches aloud, rehearse confrontations, give orders to imaginary subordinates and ponder the perfect moment. Rational people do all of these lunatic mental gymnastics to hone their sense of right and wrong, truth and falsehood. Innumerable actions are pointless. Only a few are right. One above all is ideal. To get there, you have to mentally travel everywhere.

For clarity, I will say that rationality is paramount in daily (waking) life, and dreams are more or less what Freud suggested they are: fear mixed with fantasy. If you fear nothing and wish for nothing, you get nothing except more of the same, day after bland day. Remember that our apperception and recollection of dream experiences is only upon waking, a brief interval to catch and grok the inner truth. If you avoid (blank-out) the inner truth, what chance do you have of telling the truth to loved ones, coworkers, bosses, and strangers?

Exact truth is almost always embarrassing. We edit and spin facts to make ourselves look good, to romance and baffle, avoid downside risk, keep safe, keep a crummy job, go along and get along. Nobody wishes to get his head kicked in or stand naked. I certainly don't.

But that's the price of liberty and justice: to stand naked and get your head kicked in, once in a while. The men who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 were hunted, half of them killed or injured, their land seized, homes burned, families punished. Barrel of fun being a revolutionary, especially today. There is nowhere to hide from Big Digital Brother. No underground railroad for escaped tax slaves. That's why Billy Beck is staying put where he is, waiting to be hauled away in chains. Me too, although I'm less easy to find.

I'm sorry to say that truth telling is the high road to hell. Start fibbing and you will instantly be 100% safer. Honesty is addictive. Users turn into junkies. It'll ruin your creditworthiness, employability, domestic tranquility and common sense. There is a very high probability of becoming unreasonable, combative, intolerant of compromise and 'debate.' Worse: truth telling is hazardous. James Otis was the prime mover of the American Revolution until he got his head kicked in (literally) by tax officials. It left him a cripple, barely able to speak. Sam Adams and John Hancock had to take over and exclude an erratic Otis from further participation in the revolutionary movement he inspired.

So here's the job description. You will dream terrible nightmares and doubt your fitness to think, work, and succeed. You'll gamble, against preposterous odds. You will be hunted like a criminal. I won't bullshit you about the glory of truth telling. You will be punished and probably lose everything if you succeed. Before you take this job, read what happened to Thomas Paine, James Otis, Abe Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Mohandas Gandhi, Phoolan Devi, Joan of Arc.

Warning: you are unqualified. Every candidate is unqualified.

There is, however, hope. If you can cry in the presence of goodness when you see an example of clever, generous creativity beneficial to children (like an episode of 'Wonder Pets' on Nick Jr, for instance), then your emotional equipment is in good working order. Fear is the dread of failure. But joy is our destiny. If it were otherwise, if we were doomed to nothing but folly and hardship and pain, mankind would have become an extinct species long ago.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Wolf,

Dayaamm!

That's one hell of a vision. I'm tempted to say whatever you're drinking, send me a case of it (but, alas, I don't drink anymore).

My initial reaction is the question, "Telling what truth to whom are you talking about?" Some truths are dangerous to state. Others are not.

I want to chew on this a bit before I write more.

Michael

[Jonathan]

Dayaamm!

That's one hell of a vision. I'm tempted to say whatever you're drinking, send me a case of it (but, alas, I don't drink anymore).

My initial reaction is the question, "Telling what truth to whom are you talking about?" Some truths are dangerous to state. Others are not.

I want to chew on this a bit before I write more.

Ditto, and there's lot's more to chew on at Wolf's site:

http://wolfdevoon.tripod.com/

J

[Ellen Stuttle]

Wolf,

Dayaamm!

That's one hell of a vision.

It's very well written.

Ellen

___

[Wolf DeVoon]

Thank you. My recurring experience is one of embarrassment, so it helps me a great deal when folks comment supportively. This was written a couple months ago. I had a small stroke 18 months ago and I'm no longer able to write fiction, not very confident about articles either.

W.

Edited January 4, 2007 by Wolf DeVoon

[Ellen Stuttle]

Wolf, I'm sorry to hear of your stroke. I think that the idea of having a stroke frightens me more than that of any other medical calamity.

Ellen

___

[Chris Grieb]

Wolf; Let me add to Ellen's comment. A stroke one of the most frightening health problems. Good Premises as you deal with your problems.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Wolf,

I just moved to near Chicago after having lived in Florida for 2 years with my parents (after 32 years in Brazil, but that's another story). My mother had had a stroke about 5 years ago and around May-June of last year, my father had a stroke. Both were pretty debilitating--enough to need full time care for a few months and a long recovery. With my mother, I saw just how far she had progressed, and with my father I was able to watch the initial recovery up close. (He still has a long way to go, but at least he is up and about and doing his basic tasks of living.)

Setting aside the painful part of seeing this happen to a loved one, it was also a fascinating epistemological study. For example, watching my father learn how to talk all over again, regain his memory, learn how to reason again, etc., was extremely interesting to me.

I do not know the particulars of your state, but you are a talented writer. I predict that if you are progressing in your recovery, you will be able to recover your fiction writing skills. In a stroke, one part of the brain has to take over the tasks of another part that died, but the same memories seem to be stored at various points of the brain. So they merely need to be retrieved from "nonstandard places" and processed by the new active part of the brain as it gains competence, while possibly storing them in even other places.

This, at least, appears to be what happened with my parents and with others in the literature I read.

Please feel free to write what you wish here, even if it gets really bizarre or incoherent as you regain your competence. I am sure the ensuing intelligent interaction will be good for you (and there are plenty of intelligent people of good will on OL).

If anyone gets snarky, I will bite them.

I wish you well.

Michael