You, Me, and Robinson Crusoe
Thursday, July 17, 2008 at 2:37PM 
Why base a book, podcast and blog on a novel written 300 years ago about an adventurer abandoned on a deserted island who ultimately transformed his experience from barely surviving to abundantly thriving. Please forgive me for asking a question that attempts to answer itself.
In writing our book about a psychological approach to illness, Recrafting a Life, Denny Webster and I thought that this fictional character’s experiences and masterful solutions to a seemingly hopeless situation would be a great metaphor for individuals suffering from serious health problems.
Daniel De Foe’s character, Robinson Crusoe was a “dandy,” a dilettante, a would-be adventurer from a wealthy family wholly unprepared the psychological and physical challenges that awaited him. Initially, his response was to build massive signal fires on the beach and wait, hopefully, to be rescued while living off the ship's cargo.
After three years of praying for deliverance and complaining to the Heavens , "Why me?" he accepted that unprepared as he was, he had no choice but to recraft his life on the island. He managed to achieve this magnificently - so much so that he experienced real regret at his rescue some 28 years later.
Like me, I am guessing that many of you, have experienced similar challenges in the last few years for which you felt abandoned and/or unprepared. And, like this fictional character, you may have asked, “why me?” while hoping to be rescued.
While I know of no answer to the “Why me? question, Recrafting a Life, in both its blog and podcast form, seeks to engage in adventures that will aid us in rescuing ourselves. They will take a much wider look than the book and my website. While health and illness issues are more important than ever, the entire context in which we live has experienced a major sea change. Significant portions of our lives are punctuated with a sense of unpredictability and impermanence demanding a very different skill set.
Key to our to and Crusoe's journey, I believe, is the word “recraft.” You won’t find the word in the dictionary but you will find it widely used in a variety of publications on the Web. Rather than "renew," "reinvent," "recreate," and numerous other words with the same prefix, I believe that the connotation of “recraft” best represents the possible future-forward kind of self-agency we need to fabricate our psychological, physical, social, and economic lives.
I appreciate your visit, come back often and let me hear from you.
Charlie Johnson
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