Flying SOLO
by Jennifer Iannolo
I’ve been on this board for a little over a month now, and it has been one of the happiest I can remember since reading the sentence: “Who is John Galt?”
For years I wandered on the fringes of Objectivism, unable to find people who really understood me. The disappointment that came with such a discovery was a heavy burden at first. “If they don’t ‘get’ me,” I thought, “who possibly can?”
I sometimes felt frivolous as a so-called “Objectivist.” I enjoyed philosophy tremendously, but wanted to do more than just talk about it. I had fallen in love with Atlas Shrugged because it was the story of me — who I had always been, and always wanted to be: a creator, an entrepreneur — a radiant soul. I longed to find souls that mirrored my own. But I was coming up empty.
All of that changed for me on a summer day in Vancouver. I walked into a TOC lecture entitled The Elixir of Youth, given by one Lindsay Perigo. I had never heard of him before, but his name sounded somewhat exotic, and I was intrigued by the topic. By the time his lecture ended, there were tears rolling down my cheeks as he quoted what are to me the most exalted words ever written:
“Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish…”
As I wiped the tears away, I felt a tremendous release. Could this fantastically outrageous creature of a man be the vendor of my ticket to paradise? Michael Newberry encouraged me to contact him – Michael was one of us, too. There wasn’t much time for me to speak with Lindsay during the conference, so I sent him an e-mail afterward with a critical question: “Where is the food section of SOLO?! You people have the audacity to talk about a sense of life without food and wine?! Blasphemy!” The rest has unfolded before your eyes.
Since I posted my first comment in this wonderful oasis, I have felt welcomed, appreciated, celebrated, and valued for the right reasons — and on my terms.
Though SOLO may have its detractors and occasional road bumps, let us all remember that Linz, Joe and Jeff have created a sanctuary here for those of us literally bursting with life — for whom living out loud and at full throttle is the only acceptable method. Anything less is mere existence.
Thanks to them, and to you, I have come home at last.
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