IJ

David Casseres david.casseres at gmail.com
Sat Mar 25 16:17:08 CST 2006


On 3/24/06, jd <wescac at gmail.com> wrote:
> Doesn't Wallace pretty much flat-out talk about how AA is replacing
> one addiction with another, giving in to a higher being you don't
> believe in, etc?  I could be mistaken, but I think he certainly, if
> unintentionally, sheds light on the fact that these people are NOT
> actually recovered: chain smoking, drinking endless cups of coffee,
> self-deprecating to the point that the Self isn't important at all,
> giving up rational thought for the guidance of an invisible higher
> being... etc...

He does all of that.  But for me, it was nevertheless just like being
stuck in an airline seat next to some twelve-stepper who talks
incessantly about whatever form of twelve-step he is doing.

Chris Smither has a song that makes me think of twelve-step programs:

The Devil's Real
by Chris Smither

The Devil ain't a legend, the Devil's real,
In the empty way he touched me where I hardly feel,
The empty hole inside me,
The nothin' that could ride me
Down into my grave. It does not heal.
The nothin' is a something that can suck you dry
As the whisper you can hardly hear that tells you why.

He told me, "You ain't got no problem, you're self-deceived.
These seeming contradictions are all make-believe."
It was then that I decided that my life was being guided
By a second-rate dependence on first-class thieves
They told me I was breaking through when I was breaking down,
By the time I learned the difference they had long left town.

...




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