Why bother with wisdom when we could be selling cabanas

A strange thing has been transpiring across the beaches in the Eastern Suburbs these past two years...

What was once the domain of beach towels, has now become a cabana stronghold.

Every weekend, cabanas cover the beach from one end to another. Typical of our mass produced reality, they all look near identical: Flimsy plastic tents in striped blue or beige.

To my eye at least, they look rather tacky. Even so, the mid-range price is ~$200.

Cabanas no doubt have a viral component to it. It seemed to have appeared and spread almost overnight. It's as if the whole community got a severe case of FOMO to go out/online and buy one of these things.

Seeing the sudden upsurge in cabanas, I had to stop and say to Darren,

"We are in the wrong business, man!"

Why do the hard yards in publishing, creating stories that equip kids to deal with the vicissitudes of their future lives, when it seems what families want and willingly spend on is, beach gear ...

The depressing reality of retail

When we started Wise As Stories, I was brand spanking new to the world of books, publishing and retail. The learning curve has been huge.

But what the past few years in retail has made amply clear, is that it's so much easier to sell people useless crap than something that will make a real difference in their lives.

It's like everyone is looking for a quick fix - and let's face it, we all have our vanity traps:

A ten minute exercise routine that that guarantees a six pack;
A must have meal plan that sheds all excess body fat;
A revolutionary new shampoo that gives salon finished hair without blow drying;
A premium knife set that makes cutting veggies a joy; and the worst offender IMO
Skincare products that promises to defy ageing!

If we could really defy ageing, no one would be dying. It is physically impossible to stop ageing. We will all wrinkle up (and die one day). Why not just embrace it?

And that is the strange thing.

At one level or another, we all know that we are being sold gimmicks. However, we are still willing to pay a premium price for, it seems, the promise.

It's a pleasant act of self-delusion that has infected us all. The good news for the folks that sell all this stuff is that they don't even have to spend that much on marketing... this sort of stuff sells itself.

As for us, two struggling artists who have spent the past five years searching the depths of our souls to craft authentically beautiful stories for children that will not only entertain and educate them, but also help them enjoy greater mental wellbeing as they grow into teenagers and young adults ... we've had to work (and pay Facebook an extortionate amount of money) for every single book we've sold!

Yes, bring out the violins!

We know they are good books -- because you keep telling us so ...

So, why don't genuinely good books that addresses one of the most pressing issues of our time - Mental Health - not have a similar viral quality to those damn cabanas?

The answer it turns out is pretty simple:

Willow the Wonderer does not offer instant gratification.

Our books may entertain and engage the kiddies -- but won't turn them into enlightened little buddhas* instantly, I'm sorry to say.

Had we come up with an "Ozempic" for instant Buddhahood, it would already have become an Oprah special by now...

Our obsession with quick fixes

The western world has always looked for quick fixes to their existential anxieties. Let's face it, even the spiritual uprising and the hippie revolution of the 60s/70s was triggered by a pill -- LSD.

LSD, MDMA, psilocybin are all also making a huge comeback. Psychedelic compounds are now also being trialed for treatment of severe mental health conditions, which is all well and good.

What worries me is the level of advocacy these substances are receiving, especially in the 'bro circles', for casual use.

The purpose: To expand the mind, if not for spiritual growth, then to enhance the experience of life.

What is rarer to hear are much needed warnings that there is no way to control the 'trip' one goes on when they use these substances.

Just as the effects of a positive trip can linger and be transformative, so can the negative…

Every time someone takes one of these substances, they're also messing with, what is (for people without severe mental health issues) a finely tuned neurochemistry.

Is it really worth the risk?

The bros also fail to point out that the yogis in the East never had to resort to these chemicals to open their minds -- and the insights they garnered into the nature of the mind, including its plasticity and practices to train it, have shaped mindfulness therapies that are now mainstream in psychology.

No LSD needed.

And no, these yogis aren't a different or special species of humans either … they just put in the work.

Put in the work and see the results for yourself

Most of us today, regardless of our cultural heritage, are very westernised.

Looking for quick fixes is our common fate.

What is clear though, is that some of us suffer this fate less than others.

I suspect that the audience I am talking to right now is very much in the "do the work" camp. After all, you defied the masses and have been amongst the first to buy books on wisdom for your little ones :)

I discovered the contemplative and wisdom traditions in my late 20s -- and even to this day, I can confidently say without any reservation that is the most consequential and valuable knowledge I have gained in my life.

It grounded me, in what tends to be a very tumultuous period in our lives, and gave me the stable foundation on which I could build the rest of my life.

In the fifteen years I have been practicing mind training, I've experienced first-hand, the quality of my life, personal relationships and mental wellbeing, transform for the better.

In 2020, I walked away from a corporate career that I had previously been entirely vested in. The COVID lockdowns forced me to slow down and stay put. I started thinking through what to do with the rest of my life that would not only bring me meaning but also create positive change in the world.

The answer was obvious: Start with the mind.

Our mind shapes how we experience the world -- how we feel about it. When we understand how the mind works, we have a greater chance to regulate, train and refine it. Our internal experience of life improves, and with it, the outer conditions begin to change as well.

Contemplative and wisdom traditions in the East have for thousands of years explored the nature of mind through introspective practices like meditation. The insights and practices that has come out of these traditions is transformative.

Yet, this knowledge does not get taught, even in Eastern cultures.

In the West, philosophers drove similar insights but even philosophy remains inaccessible in our mainstream culture.

Given the growing mental health crisis among children, exacerbated by social media, why mind training has not become part of schooling is beyond me ...

It is this lack of accessibility to what I believe is the missing ingredient in our modern life that inspires our work: To create stories that we wish, we'd grown up with -- Stories that plant seeds of wisdom.

Help us spread the seeds of wisdom

If like us, you are wondering what you can do to improve the state of the world - please take some time to spread the seeds of wisdom around.

When you find the opportunity, advocate for Willow the Wonderer books:

Tell your local library to stock these books
Share the books with the teachers at your kids' school
Tell your favourite bookshop to stock these books (and put in the effort to hand-sell them)
If you can, buy paperback copies to give as birthday presents to your kids' and grandkids' friends. Children start privileging their friends' advice over mum and dad's from an early age ... You may as well ensure that your kids' friends are growing up with some wisdom as well…
And tell all your family and friends about it. Make sure they leave feeling FOMO that their kids and grandkids are not growing up with these stories in their life. It's a good FOMO to have.

This may sound self-serving on our part - and in all honesty, it is ...

You'd be doing us a massive favour as we won't have to waste as much time in the 'casino' of facebook ads, which seems to mostly help fund Zuckerberg's next super yacht ...

But there is a greater purpose to it as well.

All this collective effort may just help us to build a future where our children don't have to pop a pill to enjoy good mental health.

Will we ever sell cabanas?

Hell no. We would both die, a slow inner death, for every cabana we sell …

In spite of my whinge, we get a lot of meaning from the work we do.

Darren and I set out on the path of creating stories with wisdom before we even knew or had any plans to start a publisher or enter into the world of eCommerce. We were going to do it anyway because that is what our hearts were screaming at us to do …

We are not starving artists either -- in fact, we've never been fatter!

But we would love to see our books reach many more children - and it has become apparent to us that we need help to make that happen.

So, if you can, please spread the word on Willow. And if you know anyone who can help, we'd love an introduction :-)

Footnote:*Buddha translates into "the enlightened one". It is not meant to be a reference to a god or deity. Rather, it is a title given to people who have refined their mind to the highest possible state, free from attachment and suffering. The Buddhist tradition also holds that there have been many Buddhas in history. The story that we are most familiar with is that of Siddhartha Gautama who is credited with rediscovering the technique of training and refining the mind, which had become lost to humanity for a period of time. This is why those who follow the Buddhist tradition regard him with reverence - for his insight and teachings (and not as a creator god).