Acute Vs. Chronic

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 17:00:18 GMT

It's the 24th year, to the day, of my last drink/drug today, if anyone's interested.

In medicine, illnesses and problems are usually described as being "acute" or "chronic". Acute illnesses are usually intense, often new, and short-term. Chronic illnesses often never go away.

Was thinking about the rant I wrote here "Our Symptoms, My Prescription", and some things came to me that I struggle with, chronically. Coincidentally, it was about things other people struggle with, chronically.

In all likelihood, it was prompted by some time I've gotten to myself, watching some movies, reading, listening to music. Whenever those things "get" to me, they're things that help perpetuate, what I'm ashamed to say, is often my waning grasp of the kinds of things I wrote in that rant.

I won't bore you with the reasons why those things have been waning for me, unless you ask. What I'm getting at though is that I tend to try to hang on to things that in one way or another assist in perpetuating my soul.

So many of those things are on my page. My page are as much a place for me to keep track of those things, as they are a way of letting you know there's another person with antennae still on this planet. The reasons those things matter- art, music, books, movies, our circle of friends, are because they remind us of what we are and care about just as much as give us a way of simply knowing who and what we are to begin with.

Unfortunately, there's a lot of things that are taking that interconnectedness and passion from not just me, but I think, all of us. TeVil kills it. War kills it. Corporations kill it. Keeping our passions to ourselves kills it. They're small deaths, over a long period of time- but I often think we're paying a higher psychic price than we attend to.

Our attention is half the battle. What we attend to, what our minds and hearts and eyes spend their time on, is a more precious commodity than we are aware of. I'm not just talking about not wasting time, not "settling", but our actual attention. Our attention is rightly on the middle east, but the wrong things, and to the exception of our passions where we sit, reading my drivel.

Where I'm going with this is, the books and movies and people and music and heroes on your page, and even mine, can save the part of your life that matters. It's being painfully squandered in favor of the other stuff I've been typing about ad nauseum. All the stuff in my other rant (the "Our Symptoms" one...) can, and I think should, be used to combat our loss of attention, our loss of passions.

Turn people on to stuff. Create ways to let them know what cool stuff they could be connected to. Connect people. Have passions for people. Don't just read those books, see those films, go to those galleries and poetry slams, don't just listen to a record (er, CD) that matters to you. Find some way to talk to people about why that work mattered to you. Why some relationship or some person you may not know personally mattered to you. If we don't find some way to be connected in that matter, to take those risks about the things and people we're crushing out on and find some way to communicate that, our lives really will mean little. No matter how many types of equasions you can solve, cars you can buy, or "aquaintances" you have that you refer to as friends.

Our Symptoms, My Prescription.

Tue, 24 Oct 2006 05:41:56 GMT

In response to a friend:

Be willing to get hurt- particularly, getting your heart broken. Smile even if They"re scary. Resist co-opting someones culture just because you're afraid. Dont buy. Read Adbusters. Remind yourself that you dont REALLY know who you're voting for. Dont drink your own Kool-Aid. Be affectionate- physically AND e-motionally, even if they dont understand it. Even if they cant do it. Stop asking how to do something and just do it the way YOU would if you knew yourself. BREATHE. Its OK to be nice. Love is a VERB. Always pay attention to the trees, wind, flowers, insects, dogs, cats, coyotes, possum, skunk, spider webs, mud, and birds and etc around you. Its only a job, but you can make it matter. Give. Sacrifice. Always go last. Treat every woman as Queen. Meditate. EGO is edging 'god' out- even if you dont believe in he/she/them and/or it- but we have no business acting as gods ourselves. Be still. Touch people and mean it- make them feel something. Who cares if they know how you really feel- they going to tell Oprah? Invest in loss. Burn incense. Use candles. Lots of them. Do the dishes, and know that youre doing 'god's' dishes- even if you dont believe in such. You are as entitled to be an expert about something as anyone else on the planet- no one knows anything for sure. Stop shirking responsibility. Have passion. Be soft. Find out what is hard about you and discard it. Find out what you do to put distance between you and how you feel, you and others (including anything in nature), and discard that too. Sweetness is better than smart, rich, sexy, confidence, power... you get the picture. Speaking of pictures, TeVil lies. Books get lonely, and give of themselves- TeVil takes, and is really watching YOU- not the other way around. Listen to a whole record. All the way through. In the order the songs were arranged. Maybe even loud. With the phone off. And please, fetish the packaging. When you see movies and a character or situation knocks you out- bring that spirit or thing to real life. It CAN be done. Sit on the floor with creatures. Love. Do it like you know how. Do it like youve figured it out. Do it like you dont care if you get hurt. Far as 'doing it' is concerned- be attentive. Patient. Take your time. Try to give your partner something, make them feel something. Try to make them feel the way you feel about them. Do it solely to make them cum. To make em feel again. To let em know their worth. Touch them slowly, and with every movement, pay attention to why you like it, and what youre trying to give. Be self-supporting. Mentally, e-motionally, spiritually, and physically. Listen to Bill Hicks- and realize that he was right about the spirit of everything he says. Take interest in others. In everything about them. What they read. How they fold clothes, when, and where. What they do. How they feel. What theyve been in their head and heart about. What they wish were different. Stop treating the mentally or physically ill or handicapped, homeless and otherwise different as if they cannot be treated like everyone else- hugged, taken interest in, handled as gently or clumsily as anyone else. USE THE TOOLS OF COMMUNICATION FOR WHAT THEY WERE INTENDED. If you're not really saying anything, hang up, unplug. Unplug in the other sense of the term. Go in to every situation with two things in mind- being who you are, and what you can do to make it cooler. Stop haggling over religion and find a way to make your chosen thing of spirit. Spirit is about how were all connected- just ask Aquinas. Anything in religion, psychology, or philosophy that doesnt get you closer to you, others, and god (the universe, quantum cosmology, whatever) should be thrown out. Sin bravely.

corwin137

Acute Vs. Chronic

Our Symptoms, My Prescription.