Chain-chewing for Peace

Well, the thing of it is that since the launch of the gentlefish productions website, I'm networking a lot. This is good.

My goal for the company -- and in fact my life -- is to promote peace. That may seem odd for a writing company to have as part of its mission statement, but I am not all that separate from my business, so when you hire me as a writer, you're hiring someone who you can be sure is treading gently on the earth.

I take the time to get to know clients so that I can better represent them and their passions. So, I'm aware that corporate clients may find gp, inc. to be a bit too crunchy granola for their tastes. But then again, if that's how they feel, I don't necessarily need their business.

See, the face of commerce is changing. Just take a look at the countless "anti-preneurs" who are cropping up with their sustainable companies that approach commerce with a human face. These are the people with whom I stand. I belong, in fact, to a wonderful network of forward-thinkers called zaadz.com. (I'm an ambassador for zaadz, as it happens, so do give it a look! You can find my profile at http://gentlefish.zaadz.com/.)

So, this feel-goodiness results in the fact that I'm torn between wanting to help out every potential client who mails me and making a living as a writer. Every time I give a potential client a price quote for a job, I think of the wandering poet-saints who owned nothing, slept in the moonlight, and gave their heartwords away for free.

Well, then I feel like crap. A little.

The result is that I'm chewing a lot of gum. This is in lieu of smoking a lot of Bali Shag loose tobacco. No matter how lovingly I roll my own cigarettes, it's still not so good to have this -- and the act of smoking them -- take up a large portion of my day.

The other option is the "red wine at noon" plan, but I don't have a good feeling about the future of that one...

Until then, I'll chain-chew for peace. And hopefully figure out a way to live somewhere between the moon and New York City.