Re: our holy days (was: RE: Poll by Email No. 14

And Rosta scripsit:

> Not so off-topic, because -- I remark, following on from the
> recent threads of self-discloure -- for me, vacations in which
> I vacate my home are mere chores undertaken for the satisfaction
> of people I am placed under an obligation towards by my affection
> for them. The true holiday is to stay at home and devote myself
> utterly to poetry and conlanging.
I don't go that far: I agree that activity 2 is preferable to activity
1, but activity 1 has its uses also: in particular, it helps to reset
the conscious mind.  Sometimes direct pursuit of creativity does not
achieve it.

> It is these precious
> weeks, during which I am transported into a rapture of the most
> intense exalted joy, the experience of which utterly transforms
> the experience of life from something like a dull ache to
> something like a constant orgasm, that I really live for, and
> they make the rest of the year feel grey, unrewarding and a
> chafing and frustrating impediment to regaining that joy.
Again, this goes too far for me.

> This
> mode of experiencing life is common among artists and drug
> addicts, though with the latter but not the former both the
> highs and the lows tend to get lower over time. (I should add,
> for clarification, that I myself am not addicted to any narcotic
> but tobacco and coffee; knowing my susceptibility to addiction
> and compulsive behaviour, I have been careful not even to sample
> other addictive narcotics.)
Now this is me altogether, sans tobacco and coffee.  When absolutely
constrained (e.g. by falling asleep at work) I take a caffeine pill,
but on no account two days running no matter what, or the third
non-pill-taking day features me being racked by an insufferable headache.

--
John Cowan <jcowan@...>     http://www.reutershealth.com
I amar prestar aen, han mathon ne nen,    http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
han mathon ne chae, a han noston ne 'wilith.  --Galadriel, _LOTR:FOTR_