A Starfish Is Born
We have, over the last ten years, lost nearly two thirds of the financial support for our work here. That figure is adjusted for inflation. What that means is that if we depended on our remaining supporters alone, we would not be eating. Going into all the reasons that support has been dropped would be a fruitless exercise, so I’ll forgo boring you with that. It would be unfair of me not to mention that we still have financial backers who have shown no sign of abandoning us and our work. Without them, we would have to leave the work which we came here to do. We would, of course, remain in Madang. It is forever our home.
So, we are left more or less to our own devices to maintain an income level that is conducive to staying alive. Ah, ah, ah, ah, stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive. In aid of this, we’ve taken on work to increase our income while remaining full-time on our current jobs. We are both a lot busier than the average mid-sixties couple but I reckon, since we handle stress very well, we’ll probably live longer for it.
This requires some rather tricky juggling. We have to find work that we can do at home or during times when we are not required to be at the office. Another thing that we had to do was set up a registered company to do business. It was a complicated process, since we are technically “foreigners”, but we’ve completed it now and our company is duly registered as J & E Enterprises Limited.
Our company logo might amuse you:
We wanted a retro look and I think that we got it. The logo is based on an image that you saw in this post.
There is a certain irony in all of this. We had built up a small business in the USA in the late ’70s with the aim of becoming rich. Okay, okay, we knew we were never going to be rich, but private schools for our son were within our reach. As the business became more and more cut-throat, we found day-to-day dealings were becoming ethically impossible to stomach. The whole game was, as they say, going to the dogs. About that time we decided to sell out and get off the planet. That’s how we ended up in Papua New Guinea. It’s as far as we could get without a space ship.
The name of the company which we sold out was J & E Enterprises Incorporated. Therin lies the irony. When we thought about a name for our new company, we grinned at each other and said, “Why not?”
We also wanted to feature the starfish as a symbol of our business enterprises – no particular reason – we just like it. Here’s the front page of our company brochure:
While on the subject of starfishes, I may as well show you one:
You’ve seen the Choriaster granulatus here many times. It’s as cuddly and cute as a starfish can get.
When I think of our company and how it will make it possible for us to continue our core work here, I want to feel good. It’s a good thing. I don’t need my work to identify me, but making a positive contribution to my society is important to my self-image.
A starfish will do nicely.
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Congratulations upon the start-up of your new ‘enterprise’. I think I know you well enough to see it as a successful endeavour. And what with “Your Business Buddy” (cute) as a partner you’ll be paying someone else to do your day job in no time.
All the best to you and your sweetie! I’m rooting for you, and I know lots of others are too!
Thanks, Ron. I guess we’re giving a whole new twist to the old idea that necessity is the mother of invention.
Choriaster granulatus really are cute.
I agree, Grace. Cute as can be.
Steve, I certainly appreciate the encouragement. The last ten years have been pretty scary. It’s been a matter of realising that we have skills that have considerable commercial value and putting ourslelves out there on the slave block. It’s beginning to pay off. Now it’s a matter of juggling the time.
Having been a freelancer much of my life, I have to say you describe the process well! (And the fear of not knowing if you can pay your rent!)
Yeah, and once you do get the work and attention, then there’s the time issue….how well I know that.
Just keep at it; your considerable talents, which you didn’t bury in the ground like so many do, (obscure Bible parable reference – lol!) will indeed take good care of your and your sweetie.
You have a way of hitting the nail on the head, Steve. I think that we have much life experience in common, maybe even past lives; who knows?
That fear of financial ruin nearly paralised me for about five years. Finally Eunie made it clear that I had to snap out of it. I was so depressed about our declining income that I just assumed that everything that I tried would fail. Finally I started writing again and submitting. Amazingly, I have yet to encounter a rejection since that day. I had to rewrite one article becuase I didn’t understand what the editor wanted. Other that that, everything I’ve written has earned. Now I’m an editorial manager of two of those magazines with another one possibly to come.
The only thing that irritates me about my wife is that she’s always right. At least she doesn’t gloat.
The Biblical reference is entirely appropriate – fits to a T.