A Quiet Desperation

Education and the Illusion of Security

Today, everywhere you look, people are telling you that desperation is the key to success. That if you are desperate, you can take any risk, you can do anything — you must do whatever it takes to survive to create to be your very best self. Jump from airplanes, swim with sharks, shoot guns, do whatever you can to get your heart racing so you can enter the mind of the desperate individual to find your true power.

These are the blathering of people who have never been truly desperate. These are the affirmations of the well-to-do, who have never been under duress, never hid from creditors, never wondered: medical care I desperately need or rent, so I have a place to live while pondering the philosophical question of having medical care without knowing where you will be living in thirty days.

For those of us who have lacked the blessings of a silver spoon, the opportunities of a good neighborhood with a well-endowed PTA, and the security of a gated community, desperation was wrapped around our necks at birth.

You know who you are.

You have always been desperate unless you were born into wealth. You were simply not aware of it.

Your parents raised you in it. They were always looking for something, trying to achieve…