Preface

Benjamin Franklin is famously quoted as saying: "Content[ment] makes poor men rich, discontent makes rich men poor." In Franklin's time, as in our own, it was unusual to find a person who was content. But what Franklin said made sense, both then and now -- if you are poor but content you are "rich" although you may not have the financial wherewithal to materially demonstrate it to someone else. If you are rich but discontent, what use is the money -- in effect, you are poor. 

Contentment implies balance, equilibrium. The difference between Franklin's time and our own, however, is that contentment, a more modest state of being than happiness or exuberance, appeared to satisfy a person in the 18th Century.  It no longer seems to, although it should, as the reader will discover. Contentment to most people in the 21st Century means that things are "good enough." Our jobs and our health are "alright."  If we are asked how "it's" going -- whatever "it" is --  the answer is usually "fine" although we may or may not really feel that way. 

Will Wells is in the prime of life and living his life in Portland Oregon in the early 2000's.  Although a poor man, financially speaking, he is content in the way Franklin defined that word.  He has a job as a clerk at a shoe store but he supplements his income by growing marijuana.  He has several close friends and reasonably frequent companionship with women. He occasionally reads brief "sayings" based upon biblical wisdom and he enjoys learning from them and improving himself.  If left alone he would remain content.  But he is not left alone.  

Within the span of several days he becomes intimate with a woman who exceeds anything "even in my dreams," his salary is doubled, and he becomes friendly with the ultra-wealthy and successful.   And he responds to all this as most of us would. He is drawn into their world. He experiences what most people consider the best life has to offer.  He is excited and engaged by it, as we probably would be also. 

But he suddenly begins to experience something other than "contentment," something rougher, harsher.  He says publicly he is happy but based on his actions, based on his thinking, he seems to be anything but happy. What happened to Will Wells?

Will Wells is one of those rare books that allow the reader to not only change places with its "hero" but to compare and contrast our reactions to his as the changes in his life begin to occur and then become more frequent. 

We are also presented with several situations which give rise to basic but important questions:  When his (our) entire "reality" changes, what happens to the world he (we) used to live in?  When he (we) achieves "wealth" and "social standing" how does it affect him (us)? How about former friends -- both male and female -- do we need or want them anymore? How about religious beliefs -- are they still important or of interest to us, and if so, how are they altered or shifted by what we are experiencing in "the world around us?" 

If we choose, can we return to a state of contentment; and if so, how do we make that return -- who or what should we follow and who or what should we reject? The answers that Will Wells finds surprise him. 

Finally, the unanswered questions in the book are those that we must answer for ourselves -- "What is really important to us? What are our priorities? How should traditional wisdom be reconciled to the "way things are now?" Is contentment, as Franklin defined it, something that should be sought today or is it outmoded? Should we be reaching for something less modest than contentment?

Will Wells is not a book that was written by an omniscient third person "author" but by Wells, the principal character, himself -- just like it could (might) be written by us. The words are his, the thoughts are his, the decisions are his.  And as they did for Will Wells himself, the events and occurrences in the book may have a dramatic or even a life-changing effect on our own.