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Ya’ know, there are likely thousands and thousands of remarkable, exceptional people in all types of endeavors, excelling and still knowing themselves as peers, people in recovery, who have gone through mental illness. Even many giants still talk of experiencing symptoms long into their recovery. A good number remember a time when, suffering the illness’s devastating effects, they vegetated in meaninglessness and chronic dissatisfaction.
On the back cover of Fortune Cookie Wisdom are words telling the remarkable story of the life of this ‘larger-than-life’ author Stephen J Fernbach. He is a graduate of Rutger’s University with a B.S. degree in environmental studies. He also holds a degree in environmental health science from Hunter College. He has been working for the past sixteen years for the Food and Drug Administration. In addition to his poetry, he also enjoys composing and listening to music, bookstore browsing, going to the movies and theater. This book is intended for readers of all ages. This is an impressive description of a man of distinction while in his book, he keeps it real and interesting, writing plainly about his mental illness, his varied fantasies and odd-ball beliefs. Fernbach shows no reluctance to share his vulnerabilities and the wisdom he has learned.
There are numbers of people who like myself have a hard time reading different types of writing. It is likely why other media, like television and movies, are so very popular, nowadays. I found, while reading this book that, by selecting poems of special significance to me and reading them through a number of times, the experience got richer each time. In this way those selected pieces became gist for ‘juicing up my brain processes.’
A good poem to study in this fashion is I Am Not Incompetent. It is Stephen J. Fernbach’s take on mental illness in eighteen poetically simple lines. With some pondering, I find myself comparing notes, comparing perspectives. In this piece he muses, “I am lost when chemical imbalances cause me to imagine the worst.” He finishes up the poem by declaring, “I am not incompetent. I am just impaired. I still deserve to have a life!”
We do still deserve to have a life! Stephen J. Fernbach, though mentally impaired and in recovery, leads his life right in the midst of the Food and Drug Administration. And he shares it, in his poetry, with those interested in reading his worthy creations.
I’m certain that the planet is ‘crawling with’ peers like Stephen J. Fernbach.