Grissom or Williams is particularly focused on the lies and untruths with which one lives in order to remain living. We must choose between truth and a state of “mendacity” (a term Williams is fond of using) (Grissom, 2015, p. 147):
“To face this, brutally and openly, would be for me to die, so I found my solace, my lie, in the illusion of writing, in which I could create alternate worlds with alternate people, and rule them beneficently. I was saved by writing, and later, when I was no longer able to love fully and clearly, and therefore could no longer write, I found solace, and still find it, in alcohol, drugs, in a multifaceted God who does as I choose. We are not created by God; our God is created by us. You cannot find salvation or solace anywhere until you find it in yourself and it is there [he points to his heart] that you then create your God.”
At this point, a major “strange attractor” is identified—this being Tennessee Willliam’s mother (Grissom, 2015, 2015, p. 147):
“My mother found her happiness in her past . . . and it was one we all might covet—a past in which she was pretty and cosseted and appeared to hold promise. Perhaps that was her gift, her one niggardly ornament in life: a beginning in life that held promise. And suddenly the promise is gone, and reality has taken residence in her heart and head, and it is too much.”
Like his mother, Tennessee Williams is stuck. He repeats the same pattern of destructive behavior in his life. He escapes from this sea by altering his sense of reality—much as the mid-21st-century men and women I write about in a recent book who escape down a rabbit hole to a wonderland of “alternative reality” and false serenity. Grissom or William speaks of an altered reality based in altered memories (Grissom, 2015, pg. 152)
Memory is what cures us of a loss.” “I was stupidly afraid of my memories for so long, because I was afraid to feel, but memories are the ultimate illusion—perhaps the final one—in that they allow us to believe that those we love are forever with us, within us.
Grissom or Williams is “no longer grasp for greatness. The goal is to grasp “merely for feeling.”
Daniel’s Stormy Sea: It is in his attempt to free Daniel from being stuck in his distorted and isolating feelings, that Dr. Freud might be doing some of his best work. He has warned Daniel about the perils of navigating on a stormy sea. Dr. Freud then tries to provide some guidance and support regarding this navigation. Most importantly, Dr. Freud is providing Daniel with the opportunity to exert some free will.
Clearly, Sigmund is deterministic in his belief that patterns of thought, feeling, and behavior are established early in life, structure themselves as fractals, and strangely attract thoughts, feelings, and behaviors later in life. However, Dr. Freud does open up the possibility of viewing the sea as a source of nourishment, learning, and progress. Instead of the sea aligning with a Tragic Triangle of Regret, Loss, and Anger, it is possible to envision (and help to create) a sea that is aligned with the Appreciative Triangle of Nourishment, Learning, and Progress.
