Where Damaged was a woman with a blank face, another human I met this summer, a man, seemed simply to be the sum total of his addictions – a parallel and polar opposite construct.
His emotions and energy were on his face in rapid succession, without a split second of stillness. He was difficult to watch, moving from a cigarette to a drink to another cigarette to looking for food. Clearly moving fast to keep the demons at bay.
The problem is, of course, that his solution will never work. Until he risks actually sitting down with his addictions, hanging out with them even while he’s feeding them, he has no path to change.
He is replicated in this society over and over. Our solution largely is just to medicate these wounded ones – trading perhaps one addiction for another.
It is amazing, though, what simplicity will do over time in these situations. Just taking a walk. No agenda. Observing all those thoughts and needs racing through the mind. Noticing as we walk how nature changes and shifts. Then the racing mind again. And taking another walk.
Simplicity, stillness, observing – time honored remedies that always work.