Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Rehab and Elsewhere


They tried to make me go to rehab,
I said no no no...

Amy Winehouse (1983-2011)

We’re all doing time.
Bo Lozoff

...last night, had an awesome dream...nothing too exciting...just standing, talking, after a yoga class, apparently, on a sidewalk, to somebody who, as far as I know, doesn’t exist in the world outside that dream...though, all day long, all I can think about is how much I want to see her again...

...was thinking that on the way to yoga class, and there, on the sidewalk out front, as I chained my bike to a parking meter, was a little girl, crying, and her mother, who yelled shut up, and kept walking...

...little while ago, wrote a post called Lost My Sacred Mala Beads Last Night at a Hipster Pool Party...which I mentioned to a friend from the teacher training, who still had his, wound around one wrist....that’s okay, he said, showing me an empty space on the string, one of mine broke and fell off when I got drunk and punched somebody....it was a long story...

...there’s a sign on the wall of the room where I work at the rehab that says Group Rules, with a long list underneath....one is no sarcasm....I look at that, every Tuesday night, and think I wouldn’t last five minutes...

11 comments:

Kim said...

How are you supposed to survive rehab without sarcasm? How are you supposed to survive LIFE with no sarcasm? The only thing standing between me and a padded cell some days is sarcasm.

TheRiverWanders said...

I agree with Kim 1000% and would add "jail cell" to "padded cell". If it weren't for sarcasm, my mala beads would be missing, too. Not just one...all of them...up somebody's *ass*.

I see the point in the sign at the rehab, though. I guess when you're most vulnerable the worst thing someone could do is look at the pieces of you there on the floor and craft a cruel and funny comment. So while I get the point of "no sarcasm" in that context, I suggest that not everyone is exempted from such cynical benevolence ;)

Another wonderful post. I saw some online cruelty directed at Amy Winehouse and I went right to the heart of it and set several people *quite* straight. No one asks for the conditions that create addiction - whatever they might be - and not everyone can face down the demons that caused them. Sometimes it's too hard. Sometimes the body gives up. Sometimes... the demons win. That's life and that's death and that's why we come here, I guess, to experience whatever it is we need to see, feel, touch, taste and live.

Lydia said...

Loved this post, as there is much to ponder. The guy's mala bead drunk story is so strange that it screams for sarcasm. Same with the mother yelling at her little girl on the street. Your dream, however, sounds like the beginning of a story and not one that makes me think of sarcasm.
As one who was in rehab nearly 26 years ago, I can attest to the fragility of spirit, mind, and body of the patients. However, I had one of the most sarcastic bitches for my counselor that you can imagine (or have a nightmare about). She toughened me in those days, made me stand up for myself while at the same time looking deeply into myself, and I guess that was what I needed because, although I did not like her one bit, I made it through rehab...and over 25 years of sobriety.

Meredith LeBlanc said...

I really just to print this out and carry it around with me.

a) I adore, love, & worship good sarcasm

b) in a dream night before last I started taking Bikram yoga again, (which I took for a short time 13 years ago), and after class I was walking with my teacher who told me a smelled of lotuses. And I woke thinking just as you had that I wanted to see her again.

Eco Yogini said...

isn't it weird how dream people can feel so real? maybe that's why i'm so drawn to Charles de Lint's books...

YogiCrystal said...

Love this post.
Sarcasm is incredibly necessary to get me through my day, I'll be honest.
My mind is now intrigued by the drunk guy mala bead story, sounds like something that would happen to me. ;)

earthtoholly said...

That's funny about your friend's beads...it's nice to know that the more enlightened(?) amongst us also have those moments. Yes, gotta have sarcasm to keep your wits about ya.

Laura said...

I love the following your thoughts through each passage here Dr.Jay...very dreamlike actually.

It's A Yoga Thang said...

Love this post to the EXTREME! I have a yoga program for overcoming addiction (Breathe into Recovery) and I believe taking life too seriously, losing joy, and that horrible spiritual void is the problem. Laughter, Sarcasm, we must keep it! XO

Break The Norms said...

love your post... I have also joined a meditation program Break The Norms for overcoming addiction

Rachel Fox said...

Just watched the Big Bang Theory episode last night with the sarcasm sign. Class!
x