Forming a startup company in 2008 has made my life an emotional and financial roller coaster. I admit, entirely self-induced. My initial hope in 2009 that we'd get the big funding we needed in 2010 was dashed by both the lack of winning any of the grants we'd submitted proposals for and the lack of interest from any big investors.
We sent proposals for four more grants in 2010 of which we've been turned down for one so far in 2011, but we're still hopeful about the other three.
In the meanwhile, for mental survival purposes, I've had to adopt an attitude of living in the present and taking each day and week as it comes - the entire 'river of destiny' idea - because one day one of these weeks may change my entire life again and I honestly have no way to influence when or if that may happen. It's an interesting situation to be in. I wouldn't call what I'm doing as 'living with hopelessness' but this article has some pretty good advice about doing so.
http://www.utne.com/Spirituality/Ten-Things-Feeling-Hopeless-Dave-Pollard.aspx
From a big-picture perspective, if you don't think America and all of human civilization is in a pretty hopeless situation, please let me know what gives you that optimism. Seriously.
In that "river of destiny", only dead fish go with the flow. Swim, goddammit, and remember that it's not about getting somewhere, but the journey that gets you there.
ReplyDeleteNice extension to the analogy. Thank you.
ReplyDelete