Stuart Smiley's Legacy

There's a reason we laugh derisively at a man in a pale blue cardigan staring at himself in a mirror and saying, "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and gosh darnit, people like me!" And that's . . . okay.

It IS a funny characterization of the classic new age acolyte - trying everything possible to somehow improve their life, yet it all seems in vain. Another self-help book by another guru, another well-meaning program, another failed attempt to feel . . . okay. This week it's a macrobiotic diet and hatha yoga, next week it's Dr. Phil's bootcamp and spinning classes. It all has the potential to help, and some of it is based on researched-based scientific fact, but our friend Stuart Smiley still has an emptiness in the pit of his stomach when he lays himself to sleep, so he'll go on trying to convince himself that he's good enough and smart enough to face another day.

I was thinking today how an insight or a good idea can so swiftly become trampled in the name of selling product, until the demands of making a buck morph it into something useless or even harmful. With just the slight change in emphasis, an insight goes from being able to stand alone and inspire as it is, to being a hard-to-assimilate concept that requires books, tapes, seminars, workbooks, weekend retreats, week-long conferences, and firewalking ceremonies to understand. Like an unwitting Scientology novice, the innocent believer nods his head when some complicated theory is explained in a purposely obfuscating way, and not wanting to seem like an idiot for failing to grasp the concept, he pays for a "clearing" or some other expensive product so he can finally undeerstand what all the fuss is about. If done correctly, the insight is never well explained, and therefore never grasped, leaving the seeker in a constant state of need, searching and searching for what seemed at first a simple idea.

This is assuming, of course, that an insight or a good idea lies at the bottom of this empire of income-producing product. The beauty of it, as far as the merchandizers are concerned, is that there doesn't even need to be a new insightful idea to make millions. I'm not the only fat person out there who has spent hundreds on books and tapes and programs and systems that boil down to the same concept - take in less calories than you burn, and you lose weight. But it's been glamorized and guru-ized and modernized and tarted up in evey imaginable scientific lab coated, celebrity-endorsed way, and there it is - the promised land - the big secret - the magic idea that will forever change your life.

If you go to a surgeon with a problem, the solution will most likely be surgery.

If you go to a pharmaceutical company with an issue, the solution will most like be a pharmaceutical.

If you go to a great big money-making corporation to help you, it will cost you lots of money to get their assistance.

AS you seek, so shall you find. Isn't that the way it goes?

There's a funny little ancillary to this, of course - everybody claims to, but nobody ever really wants a super simple solution to a problem, especially one that has caused them years of trouble. If the answer is really that simple, doesn't that imply that I've been a stupid idiot all this time for not seeing it? No, my problem is too complex to be solved simply. I am too unique to have a simple solution apply. I need a "program" or a "system" or a "surgical procedure" and boy, will I pay through the nose for it, but it'll be worth it.

Richard Simmons's empire became so important that he turned to bulimia to keep thin enough to go on selling his weight-loss program. And I don't question Richard's sincerity - I know he believes in what he's doing. So does Jenny Craig and Susan "Stop the Insanity" Powter and Dr. Atkins and Oprah's personal chef and Tony Little and a host of other "experts" who made fortunes - FORTUNES - selling product. At what point did Jared go from a guy who ate Subway sandwiches to lose weight, to a guy who does God-knows-what in order to stay thin so he can keep making the lucrative salary Subway pays him? What if he found that eating white flour-based bread products each day caused serious health problems? What does he have to say about Subway's new salami-bacon-provolone-cheddar-alfredo sauced masterpiece?

I am moving toward a better life and I am doing it here, for all to see, and it's about a very simple idea - core beliefs. At this stage, I cannot say for certain that this idea will result in a "successful" outcome. Nor can I say for certain that what works for me will work for others. But I will say this:

My goal is to succeed at "solving" a life-long problem, and if I succeed, to explain what I did as plainly as possible so that others with the same problem can try it for themselves.
You will never see my name associated with a Guthy-Renker product.
You will never see me tout a "program" or "system."
I may write a book, if I am so lucky, because I see value in information collected in book form, but I will make every drop of its contents available free of charge online.
If I find that, over time, my ideas have not succeeded, I will state it.

And that's . . . okay.