Offhand Remarks

It could easily be said that few people want to read about the mundane flow of everyday life, but there are always exceptions to generalities. Something written to recreate that flow with a transcendant hyper-realism might gain attention and be considered enjoyable. Of course there really is no accounting for the tastes of everyone. Some people might even enjoy reading about an author who copes with chronic pain by manipulating the emotions of his readers with constructs of near reality. One just never knows.

Last week in Eunice was a normal, peaceful experience. There was a small, quiet, private party. Those in attendance would not have chracterized it as a wild event. With the exception of a reunited couple using a bedroom they did not realize contained an extra occupant in one corner, nothing extraordinary happened at all. There are those people in the world who may have enjoyed reading about long hours of silence during which an author read about current events and occasionally ate a pretzel and sipped cold water. The odds are against that sort of narration being noteworthy or enjoyable, however.

The goal of what appears here fluctuates over time. Ultimately this would be a failure if making an emotional impact no longer motivated the posts. The goal of the preceeding post was to project an atmosphere of fun and enjoyment without many of the trivialities of an average vacation, while at the same time make the fun seem extraordinary, yet steeped in triviality at the same time. Such a goal has become easier to accomplish over time.

Overlooking the Mississippi River from the fifth floor of the State Library of Louisana always helps put things in perspective for this author. Rowdy events perhaps should not be surreptitiously glorified, with an eye to the greater good of those who can still be influenced by random peripheral social discussion. To pretend that thinking or reading about a party that sounds slightly out of control gives more entertainment than about people eating tiny hunks of cheese and sipping wine is patently absurd. And so there it is.

To be honest, it feels really good to be healthy, responsible and mature. It doesn't hurt to have left behind, in real life, the vacuous pomp and circumstance surrounding alcohol and smoking. That doesn't mean it wasn't good while it seemed like the fun thing to do.

In further honesty, severe chronic pain will lead some people to take pain pills and self medicate, regardless of what anybody may think. This post goes to proving that the topic was not approcached flippantly. Certain members of the medical establishment believe it's better for former addicts to suffer through horrible pain than receive the medication that makes life bearable. Perhaps some cosmic realization will strike such people one day. Maybe one day they'll know what it feels like. Until then, c'est la vie.