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Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Massachusetts
Posts: 3,550
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"Death and the Maiden"
As an alcoholic I learned to be wary of the “Beast within”, the so called “Addictive Voice” (AV) said to reside primarily in the more primitive areas of the brain, useful for survival in the jungles or deserts where our ancient ancestors are thought to have lived. As the body adjusts to alcohol, and tolerance of it increases, the AV is thought to encourage more “rational” areas of the brain to drink, and, if an alcohholic is temporarily sober, to relapse.
As I learned to be on guard for being stalked by the Beast, my AV, and to watch my back, I sometimes thought how Jim Corbett, a well known hunter of maneater tigers in India, wrote of situations where he thought he was stalking a tiger and suddenly he had a weird feeling that something was behind him,, watching with eager interest. Looking back over his shoulder, there, on a ledge within a dozen or more feet, lay the tiger, crouching for a final leap, eagerly thrashing its tail, its facial expression seeming to grin with hunger and anxious expectancy.
So it is with alcohol and the Beast. Despite years of sobriety, I still have to watch my back. Although Satchel Paige, the famous baseball philosopher, said, "Don't look back! Somethin' may be gainin' on you!" alcoholics should "look back", particularly if they sense that the Beast may be watching, planning to spring.
I shall close on a more humorous side with this limerick:
“There was a young lady of *****
Who smiled as she rode on a Tiger;
They came back from the ride
With the lady inside,
And the smile on the face of the Tiger.”
W.
***** Here's a hint. In Africa, a river close by Timbuktu
As an alcoholic I learned to be wary of the “Beast within”, the so called “Addictive Voice” (AV) said to reside primarily in the more primitive areas of the brain, useful for survival in the jungles or deserts where our ancient ancestors are thought to have lived. As the body adjusts to alcohol, and tolerance of it increases, the AV is thought to encourage more “rational” areas of the brain to drink, and, if an alcohholic is temporarily sober, to relapse.
As I learned to be on guard for being stalked by the Beast, my AV, and to watch my back, I sometimes thought how Jim Corbett, a well known hunter of maneater tigers in India, wrote of situations where he thought he was stalking a tiger and suddenly he had a weird feeling that something was behind him,, watching with eager interest. Looking back over his shoulder, there, on a ledge within a dozen or more feet, lay the tiger, crouching for a final leap, eagerly thrashing its tail, its facial expression seeming to grin with hunger and anxious expectancy.
So it is with alcohol and the Beast. Despite years of sobriety, I still have to watch my back. Although Satchel Paige, the famous baseball philosopher, said, "Don't look back! Somethin' may be gainin' on you!" alcoholics should "look back", particularly if they sense that the Beast may be watching, planning to spring.
I shall close on a more humorous side with this limerick:
“There was a young lady of *****
Who smiled as she rode on a Tiger;
They came back from the ride
With the lady inside,
And the smile on the face of the Tiger.”
W.
***** Here's a hint. In Africa, a river close by Timbuktu
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Massachusetts
Posts: 3,550
P.S. I was thinking about the AV. Although it's sometimes called the Beast, it is really more like the child within, angry, demanding,screaming for what it wants "right now" but also loving, with wide eyed appreciation of beauty, flowers, animals. If surgery could eliminate the place or places in the brain where it lives, it would be a pity since love, gratitude, and all the rest might diminish and possibly vanish. So we should control the child within, be wary of it an d help it to mature. Sobriety goes a long way towards doing this.
Bill
Bill
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