When people ask me what I do, which does not happen very often since my retirement, I tell them that I write and paint. If they wish to know more, which they rarely do, I explain that I am neither a writer nor a painter, but that I enjoy writing and painting in their own right. I emphasize that I do not wish to do what writers and painters have to do to be discovered, as well as to keep their place in the limelight. If the people I am talking to are sympathetic to my ravings, which has happened but a few times over the years, I also admit that I am waiting to be discovered. But only by chance, it goes without saying.

It is indeed amazing what writers and painters must do to be discovered. Finding the right publisher is an arduous process. There are literary magazines and their editors to master first, and then there are literary agents whose job is to find the right publisher for you. In addition, literary critics are essential in getting noticed and promoted. Selling a book is a hard job. Similarly, finding the right gallerist takes quite an effort. Exhibitions without sales are not worth talking about. Art collectors are out there in numbers, but you need an art critic of renown to get their attention. Getting your work into a museum is the next and difficult step. And so on, and so forth.

Successful writers and painters are those who master their trade. A little bit of luck always helps, but learning the ropes is a must. Although exceptions always exist, they are celebrated only as deviations from the rule. Put simply, writers and painters must be at the right place at the right time. They have to ingratiate themselves with the right people. Once successful, they have to appear in the media, give all sorts of talks, and keep in touch with their fans. And they must be clever about money, which is of the essence in both publishing and exhibiting art. Being naïve about it may be endearing at times, but it will not get a writer or a painter very far in the long run.

Waiting to be discovered is thus silly from the very start. Even if the people who are in the right place to make your work visible and desirable happen to stumble upon it quite by chance, they will not pay it much attention. They have so much to do with all those who are constantly at their heels to do anything about your work out of the goodness of their hearts. Besides, they will know perfectly well how hard it is to push the work of someone completely unknown into the limelight even when you pay them for their services or cajole them for their favors.

In short, it is time for me to forget about my hope to be discovered. It is time to stop waiting in vain, that is. If I do not wish to go through all the steps necessary to be recognized as either a writer or a painter, I can still enjoy writing and painting, but I cannot hope for anything else. No surprises are very likely in this regard. It is time for me to accept the way things actually are and to focus on the joys of writing and painting as such. After all, that is why I am writing and painting in the first place, as I like to stress whenever an opportunity arises. If anything is in the way, it is the silly hope of being discovered and nothing else. And liberating myself from it is an enormous joy.