Earning and learning: the bottom line

The strange leaps of fate took me to the top of Thoor Ballylee, which Yeats restored and where he stood to survey the spiraling world

It’s true that I often write about the shortcomings, obstacles, fears and crises that we face as a species. After all, I’m a philosopher whose focus is the ecological emergency. Even though I think the solution to the existential threat we all now face is based on being able to keep calm, be kind, build communities through networking (hence my being here) and share ideas on how to create resilience, it’s still hard not to talk about overwhelm. So let me move the dial, as they say on a radio station here in Ireland, and talk instead about my deepest darkest secret: how I escaped a situation of utter desperation, and now live a life of comfort, joy, love and freedom.

The first thing is that I can’t go too deeply into what happened to transform my life because it involves people — family, friends, colleagues — who are not aware of what I had to do to survive at one stage. Others are aware but require privacy. So all I’ll say is that writing daily, and honing a few phrases to create a connection, allowed me to earn enough to survive and even thrive when I had no place to call home, a menial (though worthwhile) very low paid job, and severe financial demands.

My advice to all is to decide first of all what you want to be, not what you want to do.