I should add that we all need escapism.
So; well written fiction is valuable.
The stories are written for profit.
An honorable venture?
And the best of these stay with us.
So, thank you Ian Fleming.

David f. ... love your post!

Good luck with the bio.

(On another subject, has anyone commented on the fact that Foxy is no longer posting? Maybe I missed it in my brief glances at this forum, Foxy has been such a long time poster, I would hope that some recognition would be given to her in her absence ... did I miss it?)

"People generally won't have the time to read a large amount of published material", says Ipso Fatso.

Sadly, too many people don't read at all - apart from the main stream media, where fiction is hard to distinguish from opinion these days.

There don't seem to be many well-read people on OLO: hence the ignorant BS posted here. Only people who read extensively - books, not the press and Google - on history, politics, philosophy etc. can be taken seriously.

Good for you Everald. Keep waking up every morning and writing.

Hi David,

I second what Poirot said, good on you.

What is WISDOM, I wrote this to my 40 year old son recently as he is still very much riding the roller coaster of life; "Wisdom can't be bought or sold it has to be acquired through experience and personal development. Some receive the gift, others unfortunately never do. Wisdom is not simply intelligence, its more than that, its understanding through perception."

David may I ask, what do you think is WISDOM?

Dear Paul,

What is wisdom. It is being humble enough to say, “I don’t know.” I don’t know what wisdom is, but I have a few ideas on what it might be. In addition to admitting you don’t know it’s asking questions to find out. Sometimes you can think or experiment and find the answers for yourself. I think one doesn’t find out anything by faith. Faith is the enemy of wisdom. Better doubt than faith. I believe there is only the world we can encounter by our senses, instruments to extend our senses and conclusions derived from the observations of those instruments and senses. We can make abstractions such as a circle, a figure whose boundary called its circumference is an equal distance from its center. There are no existent circles, only the abstractions. The glory of humanity is that we are the only animal we know that can make such abstractions. The ripples on a pond that spread when a stone is thrown into it look circular, but the center of a geometrical circle is a point with no dimensions. A real stone is an irregular object. Be aware that an abstraction is an abstraction. Ask for proof or find evidence for the proof or falsity of what you hear. Wisdom can be doubting what I or anyone tells you unless they supply evidence or proof. Sometimes Polonius makes sense. Doubt me or anyone else who has the presumption to say what wisdom is.