I just finished re-reading a novel by one of my favorite authors, William Somerset Maugham. The book is ‘The Moon and Sixpence’. It’s a phrase Maugham used in one of his earlier books. It’s in reference to one of life’s key motifs. It asks the question we all struggle with somewhere inside us. Do you strive for the moon, or settle for the sixpence you see lying in front of you on the payment? Do you go for it, or do you get trapped into a life of following the carrot that dangles before you on a stick?
The book’s very loosely based on the artist Paul Gauguin. Gauguin was one trippy dude. He starts his adult life as many of of do. He finds a job, marries, has kid’s and settles into life. He began as a stock broker, and fairly successful one at that. They were rich enough to have servants, and his wife threw lavish dinner parties, every other day.
One day, Gauguin decides to leave everything to a become a painter. He just leaves. Abruptly. He sends his wife a farewell note from Paris, leaves her destitute, and doesn’t turn his attention to her or the children again. They bounce back, but Gauguin lives in poverty for almost the rest of his life. All he was interested in was his art. This part of Maugam’s story is mostly true. There will always be variation when he’s telling the story, which is why I love his writing. In between the truth and Maugham, there will always be shameless embellishment, that often unveils a truth beyond what actually happened. To his credit, Maugham did research the book during a time when memories of Gauguin were fresh in the minds of those who knew him. He even went to Tahiti where Gauguin ended up in his final years of life.
The thing though about Maugham is seventy five percent of what he tells you is bullshit, and the other twenty five percent is outright lies. He always giving himself equal billing to the lead character by placing himself as participant and narrator of the story. He loves to show up as an acquaintance, and placing himself into the society and lives of the people he’s writing about. As a consequence, a lot of what he writes didn’t happen, but it provides a tremendous amount of creative license, and Maugham makes a meal of creative license every time he gets his hands on it. With this in mind, when we follow the truth and Maugham, they all end up in Tahiti. Gauguin ends up there. Maugham the character ends up there. Maugham himself ends up there within the living memory of Gauguin’s life.
Throughout the novel, Maugham goes through great pains to highlight the flaws in Gauguin’s character. He wasn’t capable of caring for anyone else’s well being. He didn’t even care about his own. He was cold in his reaction to it. In addition to this, he had a greatness in his soul. Every painting a perspective on life no-one else can give you. A different but imaginable reality to the one we live. He found that genius in Tahiti. It was calling him. He had to go. In a very real way, he chose the hero’s journey, and in the end, captured the moon. When he found his peace, he found his genius.
This is a terrific story. Not a pretty one, but something like a meme, only bigger. Big enough to be what Carl Jung called an Archetype. It’s not just a supplementary metaphor of life’s reality. It’s something that lives in all of us that we immediately recognize once we see it. A part of who and what we are as a species. Something per-existing that lives with us as we make our way through space and time together. Something we grasp once we recognize it. Here is where Maugham shows some genius of his own. He tells us of this epic journey and then ties it into this much greater Archetype.
He shifts his narrative from living along side of Gauguin, to looking into what happened to him since they parted ways. He learns of Gauguin’s death, and when an opportunity arises, visits Tahiti to find out more about his acquaintance’s final days. On his way, he meets a doctor working on an island much like Tahiti. There’s no money in the job. He lives in a poor country amongst poor people. It turns out the doctor was highly regarded in London and was expected to reach the height of his profession. In this way, he was like Gauguin. He gave up everything upon finding his home. He knew the moment he walked off the ship he was home. He even walked directly to a restaurant serving a food, he knew would be there. He was home, and it didn’t matter what he lost from his old world. The experience of living his life where he belonged, a fulfillment he could not find at home.
Maugham calls this living a More Intense Significance, and he paints a vivid picture of the peace it brings. Knowing you are home with your life and yourself, and not needing much beyond that. This is the Archetype Maugham so perfectly presents to us. Sixpence is not enough to get us home. We need a more intense significance if we are to touch the moon. I fear if we don’t all rise to this higher significance, we are doomed the fate of a self-destructive world. In particular, the environment, but we must rise to a more intense significance regarding all the destructive momentums in the world. The war over democracy the western economy, which at this point has become exclusive and non-functional.
There’s a lot going on right now and you and I must rise to the challenges this world presents. This is our shared intense significance. Right now, it’s unmanaged and barreling towards annihilation. It’s our collective potential and it lacks significance. It’s a force so great, if unmanaged, it will bring death to all. Each one of us has to take ownership of our intense significance and then our significance becomes intentional. There are so many places to find your individual genius. If you give your life purpose, you find the contentment of being home. You find greater community, that validates and envelops you rather than leaving you on the sidelines. You will be among your people. Each one of you seeing eye to eye and in sync. There is no greater security than numbers.
In addition to the righteousness that comes from fighting the good fight, I think people like Greta Thunberg experience a greatness of self that you can’t buy. She’s become part of a loving community that now lives inside her, and has become inseparable to who she is, and it’s greater than what she was before. She’s doing what she’s supposed to be doing and amongst her people. Nothing much more than that matters. She’s found her home, understands her significance, and discovered a new greatness of being.