Southwest Airlines is, by far, my first choice when it comes to flying. However, Air Tran may be running a close second. The reason? XM Radio in flight.
Yesterday I was flying Air Tran to White Plains, NY, happily enjoying channel surfing on XM. I happened upon an old blues station and listened for a few minutes. This isn't old blues like Muddy Waters and B.B. King, but old, OLD blues from when recording equipment was barely invented. Back during the Robert Johnson days of going to make a deal with the devil at the crossroads.
On came a song I'd never heard before, by an artist I'd also never heard before,Tommy Johnson. The song, "Canned Heat Blues" was an ode to the hard luck of skid row drunks.
What is canned heat? In this case, it refers to Sterno. And what does Sterno have to do with alcoholism? Get this - some drunks, so hard up for a bit of intoxication, would process the alcohol out of Sterno. Consumption of Sterno? Yeesh.
Ask any reasonable person, "Hey! Wanna get loaded off Sterno? Or mouthwash? How about hair spray?" Immediate answer would be, "NO!"
Doesn't this just show the power of alcohol? People get so addicted to the high they'll consume things which aren't meant to be consumed, just for the minimal high. If someone hits the skids this hard, there's little to no hope A A would ever help. When someone has sunk to drinking Sterno, their life is as good as over.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Hello,
referring to the last paragraph of your article you obviously have no clue what addiction is all about. You may be the most ignorant person i have ever read an article written by.
"If someone hits the skids this hard, there's little to no hope A A would ever help. When someone has sunk to drinking Sterno, their life is as good as over. "
I personally am an active member of NA (narcotics anonymous)and AA. I know many people who have sunk to this level and much much further (doing things that would make your closed mind shit in it's pants) that have multiples of years clean.
Instead of judging others that have a problem why not be part of the solution? Maybe do a little bit of research to understand the disease of addiction and how it can be arrested and stopped. Maybe offer some advice from the findings of the research you obviously did not do to help them instead of condemning them.
It is people like you and articles like this that steer people with problems away from getting help. This is the sort of reading that furthers alcoholics/addicts hopelessness about their life and problems.
Say you had a son and he was in the grips of alcoholism this bad. Would you say to him that his life is as good as over and there is little to no hope for him? I highly doubt that!
no hard feelings and have a nice day,
mitch
Dear Mitch,
Thanks for reading this and for your comments.
First, you have some things right on. For those like yourself who've kicked substances for good (props on getting clean, BTW), everyone should celebrate your commitment and diligence to improve your life. As I read what I wrote some six months ago, I realize you're right-my article comes across as dismissive towards those with addictions, writing them off. While this is what was written, it is truly, truly NOT how I personally feel. I have huge, HUGE amounts of respect for those who've hit bottom, realized there's only one way to get out of this existence and then taken the steps to get clean. And you're right – not all addicts who've sunk to this level are hopeless nor are their lives over.
However, based on my findings (which I do actually have from credible sources, despite what you think), 94% of alcoholics will end up dead as a direct result of their drinking, 4% will have organic brain damage and 2% will make it into permanent sobriety (this is according to Carl Dawson from Missouri State University).
You are that 2%. And you've got my respect for that.
The numbers are simply stacked against addicts. My purpose in this article (and in my work) isn't to judge nor demean those who've become addicted to substances. Rather, to keep people from ever sinking to the points you referenced.
Mitch, if my words offered nothing but more hopelessness for addicts that is certainly not my point. I can see how pointing out these horrific details could come across that way.
But Mitch, man, to accuse me of being judgmental? After throwing out comments like "you may be the most ignorant person I've ever read" and "closed mind shitting" and to follow it up with "No hard feelings"? I'll let you determine whether that, itself, is also judgmental.
Again, my congrats and respect for your accomplishments.
I would like to make quite a differwent comment. not only are you tactless in reference to addiction brad, but your initial information about blues singers is almost all wrong. Robert Johnson was not the man who claimed to have sold his soul to the devil. This was in fact the man who wrote canned heat blues; Tommy Johnson.
As well as this, the song was not simply a, as you put it "ode to the hard luck of skid row drunks", but was in fact the story of Tommy Johnson's personal experience of addiction.
And finally, the reason there were "some drunks, so hard up for a bit of intoxication" was that this was written in the middle of prohibition.
Get your facts straight before you go spouting more unfounded gibberish.
I'll add that Anonymous is correct about Tommy Johnson being the one who claimed to have gone to the crossroads and sold his soul to "ol' Scratch". If you read the lyrics to Canned Heat Blues, you can see the effects of the alcohol poisoning on the man. He was clearly delusional.
Robert Johnson was accused of selling his soul by his peers because he originally played harmonica with Howlin' Wolf and Charlie Patton, then later emerged as a better guitar than both of them, leading people to speculate that he had sold his soul to the devil to acquire the skill, a rumor that he never denied in order to boost his fame. However, the rumor gained strength when Robert Johnson was poisoned for sleeping with another man's wife and died.
Post a Comment