Chasing the Wind: A Philosophical Novel

A Museum Café
James Jerome Newhouse sat alone and disappointed at the
designated meeting place. They hadn’t come. Twenty-five
years ago, to the day, he and his two unlikely friends—Freddy and
Bart—pledged that they would meet again in this art museum’s
coffee shop and share what they had done with their lives.
From his table, he had a view of an elegant fountain with delicate
splashing water. Surrounding it were tiles arranged in circles
with inlays of the signs of the zodiac. The two-storied, yellow
sandstone walls were lined with beautiful columns and arches. But,
somehow, it had all lost its charm. They no longer filled James
with quiet contentment. They were the same, but he had changed.
All those years of chasing his desires left him dead to their beauty.
There was a hollowness to it all now that overwhelmed him. James
remembered the scene as if it were yesterday.
✦ ✦ ✦ ✦
“ONLY YOU WOULD choose an art museum coffee shop, Newhouse.
They don’t have burgers, and they don’t serve Schlitz or
Old Milwaukee.”
“Bart, you mean you don’t like the alfalfa and cucumber sandwiches
I chose for us? Was the tomato slightly too piquant for
you? Why, you haven’t even finished your delicious carrot juice
and fruit drink.”
The stocky redheaded linebacker was going to add to his litany
of complaints the outrageous prices, but Freddy cut in.
“Listen, I agreed to come here because we’ve been together
these four years in the Sigma Nu house. You know that I hated
the whole fraternity gig, but you treated me decently, and I
didn’t want to cut out after graduation without saying goodbye.
So, what did you have in mind, James, besides this pretentious
artsy food?”
The tall, athletic James held up his hands and laughed, “All right,
all right!” But then he leaned forward with a serious look radiating
from the dark brown eyes of his handsome face. “Both of you know
I went through a rough patch. I was foolish and you two and Peter
helped save me.”
Bart and Freddy looked down at their half-eaten sandwiches
and shifted uncomfortably in their chairs.
“Yes, I know. You don’t want to talk about it, but I do. I wanted
to live life to the fullest, a life of pleasure. I still do, but the frat boy
life isn’t the way. Parties, sex, and booze don’t bring satisfaction.
Even when I started down that path, I knew that it wouldn’t
work. I wasn’t even after pleasure. I was angry. I see that now, but
that error could have killed me. No, true, lasting pleasure comes
from beautiful works of art, classical music, elegant buildings,
and”—with a quick glance at Bart—“fine foods.”
Bart guffawed. “Fine foods! Give me steak and beer and tons
of French fries!”
James smiled. “I’ll admit that I wanted to tease you two barbarians
but let me be serious for a moment. I’d like for us to state
clearly what we want in life, to go for it, and see what happens.”
Through his thick glasses Freddy looked at his watch. “Get to
the point, James.”
Bart nodded in agreement.
“Okay. The three of us have hung out together for four years,
but we’re as different from one another as Aquinas and Nietzsche.
Right, Freddy?” Freddy nodded in agreement.
“Each of us is chasing after something important to us in our
own way, and that something is more important to us than anything
else. I’m pretty sure that once we leave this place we’re going
to drift apart; so, I’d like to conduct a little experiment. Let me
tell you what I want in life. Then, you two say what you want,
although I can already guess. Then, we’ll make a pact.”
“A pact? Good God, why?”
“Just humor me, Freddy. You’re the philosopher. Let’s see how
our different philosophies pan out in life.”
“Freddy, let’s hear him out. He’s paid for the meal, such as it is.
Go ahead, James.”
“Good. What do I want to do with my life? Enjoy beautiful
things. I’m going to do some graduate work in art history and, if
all goes according to plan, I’ll live in style somewhere in Europe
and enjoy la dolce vita and avoid all the crassness and hubbub of
modern life. My family’s filthy rich and gave up on any ambitions
for me, so I’m free to do it.”
James finished and looked at Freddy, his skinny and bespectacled
unkempt friend. “What about you, philosopher Freddy? What
do you want out of life?”
“Well, first. I don’t want to be called Freddy anymore. I’ve never
liked it, and you two know it but I was stuck with it in that damned
fraternity. I’ll be Frederick from now on. I don’t want to waste my
life on faux Epicurean pleasures like you, James.”
“Oh no! Are we going to hear one of your boring philosophical
lectures, Freddy? I mean Frederick.”
“No, I won’t waste words on you, Bart. I know that you’re a lost
cause, but I still entertain some hopes for James here.”
“Why thank you, Frederick.” James waved his hand and bowed
his head as he pronounced his friend’s preferred name with the
same mocking tone as Bart’s.
“Listen, you wanted us to be serious. Let me say my piece and
get this over with. I want to know everything. I’m voracious for
knowledge. I’ve earned a full ride to UC Berkeley and I’m going to
study philosophy.”
With a feverish glimmer in his eye that showed even through his
thick glasses and seemed to hold his two friends captive, he slowly
repeated, “I want to know everything, and I’m going to do it.”
The awkward pause in the face of such passion was broken by
Bart clearing his throat.
“You guys know me. I don’t come from rich families like you two.
I’ve got no time or desire for your highfalutin ideas or pleasures.
I got to this university on a football scholarship. I want to make
money. That’s why I majored in business. I want to own a business
and make money and never, ever be poor again. And then nobody
can look down on me.”
“And marry Julie, that really sweet looking Alpha Chi and the
boss’s daughter?”
Bart glared briefly at James and then responded. “Yes, that’s part
of the plan. So what?”
“Sure, but I think that you might find there’s more to Julie than
a means to a banking account.”
“Look, you asked what we were planning, and I told you. Besides,
Julie was the reason we two almost became enemies. I don’t want
us to get angry just as we’re leaving. So, drop the subject of Julie.”
“You’re right,” James apologized. “You both spoke the truth,
which is what friends should do. We can talk about how things
worked out in twenty-five years.”
“Twenty-five years? What the hell are you talking about?”
Bart spoke but Freddy’s face showed the same shocked and
dubious expression.
“This is where the pact comes in. Today is an auspicious occasion.
No, don’t roll your eyes. It is. We’ve just graduated from
university. We are very bright and ambitious with different
outlooks on life. We’re going to pursue them and we’re capable
of doing that. As I said before, I think that it would be interesting
to see how it all worked out.
“Here’s the pact. Twenty-five years from now I want us to
return to this place, sit down, and tell each other how we did.
That’s it. What do you think? Agreed?”
James rose from his seat and extended a closed fist. “What do
you say? Is it a pact?”
Freddy and Bart stood and placed their hands over James’ fist.
“It’s a pact,” said Freddy.
“Deal,” agreed Bart.
They knew that the time for departing had arrived, and they
said their goodbyes.
After Bart and Freddy left, James sat down again. He ordered
a bacio gelato, followed by an espresso. After sitting for a few
more minutes regarding the Italian Renaissance-styled courtyard
that he loved, he took his last sip of coffee, stood up, smiled, and
said out loud, “The game has begun.” He left the café and strode
out into the bright sunshine of what he thought was a new day
full of possibilities.
✦ ✦ ✦ ✦
JAMES LOOKED UP from his unfinished third cup of coffee. The
two empty chairs stared at him from across the small, elegant
table. He rested his head in his hands, looked down, and closed
his eyes again. He opened them, and frowned. His two friends
hadn’t come. They weren’t coming.
“Sir, we are beginning to close. Is there anything else that you want?
With a look that belied his words he answered, “No thank you. I
don’t want anything.”
He pushed himself up slowly from the table, feeling the weight
of years chasing the wind. He walked out into the night hoping
that his friends had done better.

BOO K I
U N L I K E LY
F R I E N D S
“Of all the things that wisdom provides for the
happiness of the whole man, by far the most
important is the acquisition of friendship.”
—Epicurus, Leading Doctrines, 27
“A friend loves at all times.”
—Proverbs 17: 17
M E D I TAT I O N
The ancients valued friendship highly. In contrast to
much of the modern world, friendship was considered
an important subject for philosophical reflection. Perhaps
the greatest of ancient philosophers, Aristotle, devoted two
whole sections to friendship in his great work on ethics. His
statement that a friend is a “second self” describes the shared
characteristics of friends with the result that we can know
ourselves through them.
C.S. Lewis, that very ancient modern, wrote that friendship
comes about when two or more companions discover
that they have a shared interest or viewpoint that they
thought was unique to them. Here a friend is understood as
someone having a common interest, perhaps an even better
word is a passion.
Understood in this way, a friend is very much like us. He
shares our character or our interests.
But our three friends, James, Bart, and Freddy, are very
different and their interests are not the same. They are
unlikely friends thrown together seemingly by the mere
accident of being in the same place at the same time. When
they no longer remain in that same place, they drift apart
pursuing their own desires down separate paths.
Through many trials and tragedies, they will discover
that each passion they have been separately pursuing has
been as futile as chasing the wind. Yet in God’s mercy that
chasing of the wind will unite them again in the end.