When I'm popping my pills
to alleviate my ills, I use the
Online Drugstore Canada.
When I'm running down low
and I'm likely to blow, I use the
Online Drugstore Canada.
Oh, the Online Drugstore Canada,
is the place that I call home;
every pill I need
it will quickly speed -
relieve the pressure on my rising pressure dome.
If I'm trying to start
my recalcitrant heart, I use the
Online Drugstore Canada.
If I'm easing my gout
or I'm starting to shout, I use the
Online Drugstore Canada.
Oh, the Online Drugstore Canada,
is the place that I call home;
every pill I need
it will quickly speed -
relieve the pressure on my rising pressure dome.
Showing posts with label drugs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label drugs. Show all posts
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Saturday, January 11, 2014
The Shadow Line
There are several spoilers here. Don't read if you're intending to watch the series.
We've watched a British series on DVD over the last week or so. It's called The Shadow Line, and it was exceptionally gripping. But also very nasty, and ultimately somewhat unsatisfying, as it killed off the one character who had integrity, and left the villains in charge. There was a point to this, which I'll come to in due course, but after having watched the villains do damage to all and sundry throughout the piece it was disappointing to see them getting away with it still further.
The piece has two stories running in parallel (over seven lengthy episodes), but both intersect at a number of points, and both have come about as a result of something that happened before the story began. The first episode opens with what seems a prolonged look at a dead body in a car. Two police officers have 'discovered' the body, and the more talkative and more-knowing of the two (David Schofield) seems to have his own peculiar agenda. He plainly knows more than he's letting on, though he gives away a number of hints to the viewer.
We're then introduced to Detective Inspector Jonah Gabriel (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and his working partner, Detective Sergeant Lia Honey (Kierston Wareing). The latter is a smart-mouthed, very competent cop, who's not entirely pleased to be working with Gabriel, who, as a result of being shot in the head (the bullet is still lodged in his skull) has had a loss of memory as to what he was doing the night he was shot.
Gabriel's is the main story, and he's the character with integrity, and a passion for the truth. Curiously, as so often happens with characters in modern films who have integrity, he has had a mistress with whom he's had a child - his own wife has had several miscarriages, but is hoping for one last chance at pregnancy. In the film Gabriel - to his credit - anguishes over the fact that he's never revealed the presence of this other woman, and their son, to his wife. At least in that regard he's better than the leading character in Judge John Deed, another series we've been watching, where Deed, the judge who's shown as having enormous integrity on the justice side of things, consistently plays around with various women, including his former wife, his current lady friend, and several others.
The parallel character to Gabriel is soon introduced: Joseph Bede (Christopher Eccleston). He's a wholesale flower seller - on a big scale - and is using his business as a front for drug smuggling. Also on a big scale. Supposedly he's built up the flower business primarily as a cover for a one-off big deal that will set him up for life, and will enable him to provide constant care for his wife, who has early onset Alzheimer's. But one of the problems with the drugs game, as we see time and again in this story, is that it's a cruel master: Bede finds himself increasingly trapped inside his plan. Several others, both big and small, also come to grief before the series has finished, most of them violently.
The series may be intended to highlight the impossibility of surviving the drugs game (more than one character talks about 'just surviving', and one of the nastiest (Rafe Spall, always on the verge of insanity) says realistically, in the last episode, how he's probably only got twenty years before he'll wind up the same way as all the others), and it's plain that those who have made the big time in drugs live under the tension of being overtaken by the next villain to come along, and plainly don't enjoy the fruits of their labours.
However, this is countermanded by the fact that the corrupt police in the series, of whom there are several, seem to manage to live above the law, and thrive. Their involvement in drugs began as something that was seen as a good, but was achieved by the wrong means. Then the 'rewards' have taken over their lives and they've gone back to the trough time and again. And the chief of these, a man called Gatehouse, (Stephen Rea, in a most chilling performance), manages to manipulate and pull strings and survive assaults, like the devil himself. He's perhaps the most improbable character, when you reflect on it all, yet Rea gives him such life and personality that you come to believe he could exist. He's utterly treacherous, blatantly murderous, and convinced of his own ability to twist everything and everyone to his ends, even those who appear to be honest.
The story is utterly convoluted, and has several shocking moments, as well as some we can see coming. Almost no one is who they seem, apart from Gabriel, and he worries a good deal (since he has this memory issue with a very important event) that he may not be the honest man he hopes he is. The curious thing is that even the evil ones tell him he is honest, and that gets up their nose. He's the only one to make Gatehouse think he might have mis-stepped at one point, and that's some achievement.
Hugo Blick wrote the script, and directed and produced the series. (Blick has also been an actor.) This is a major achievement, because he has filled the series with vivid characters and cast some of the best in the business in the roles. Yes, there are some moments in the story when coincidences pile up a little too high, but the tension created and maintained throughout is extraordinary - I could feel my own nerves on edge during one particular episode - and he continually keeps us guessing as to who is really who. Some apparently good characters aren't, and some of the evil ones appear to have their moments of sincerity.
Blick's direction can be mannered - but then the best film noir directors are always mannered. That's one of the things that makes these films what they are. A great deal of the time is spent in darkness, or night, or shadows, but even when we venture out into daylight, there's a sinister feel to what we're seeing. We know, for instance, that the journalist on his motorcycle won't make it home, and this is assisted a couple of scenes before by seeing him standing in front of a full-sized photo of T E Lawrence - with his motorbike. But then Blick takes advantage of what we guess by first giving us the journalist and his motorbike a near miss, and then having him vanish into a dip in the road, while a car heads towards him. Nothing happens on the screen for a moment, there's an ominous thump, then the car quietly reappears out of the dip and proceeds. The motorcycle doesn't reappear. Finally we're taken down into the dip to see the journalist incongruously sitting on the road, dying, his bike splattered across the road, and worse, that large farm vehicle he just missed a few minutes before sounds as though it's heading his way. It's a grisly scene, but all done without any bells and whistles, and in spite of our realisation that it's going to be happen, we're still shocked.
Several other scenes shock in different ways. Gatehouse makes his way into at least three houses at different times, and on each occasion we think he's going to murder someone. Nothing ever quite happens as we expect, so that when the actual murders happen, we don't have high-pitched strings playing on the soundtrack to prematurely warn us; the murders come almost out of the blue. When he comes to Peter Glickman's son's house (Glickman is his opposite number in the story, and is absent until about half way through the series) and threatens the man's wife, the whole thing takes on a craziness via a baby monitor that we misunderstand at first. The baby is unharmed, the woman is hysterical - but unharmed - and the only disaster is the dinner burning on the stove, an echo of the soup burning after the murder of the young pregnant mother earlier on.
Then there's the confrontation between Glickman and Gatehouse, in a Dublin clock shop. It has Hitchcock written all over it, right to the point of the explosion that demolishes the place, but not the two villains. (Hitchcock is everywhere through the series, in fact, and is frequently himself put in the shade by Blick's trickery.) And the near disposal of Gatehouse in the hospital by Glickman's mistress - at least that who she appeared to be until she stabbed Glickman to death - much to our surprise. This hospital scene is improbable; firstly because we know they say Gatehouse has the heart of a 20-year-old, but he is actually in his sixties and shouldn't have withstood being blown up and shot twice; and secondly how does he know he's about to be done in by the mistress and what method she's going to use? Where is the policeman outside the door (yup, that's kind of explained later) and how come the nurse doesn't see or hear anything? Once again Blick turns our expectations on their heads. If for no other reason than his ability to undercut what we think will happen, Blick should be congratulated for a masterly series.
I didn't like some of the things that happened in it, but it was gripping viewing!
We've watched a British series on DVD over the last week or so. It's called The Shadow Line, and it was exceptionally gripping. But also very nasty, and ultimately somewhat unsatisfying, as it killed off the one character who had integrity, and left the villains in charge. There was a point to this, which I'll come to in due course, but after having watched the villains do damage to all and sundry throughout the piece it was disappointing to see them getting away with it still further.
The piece has two stories running in parallel (over seven lengthy episodes), but both intersect at a number of points, and both have come about as a result of something that happened before the story began. The first episode opens with what seems a prolonged look at a dead body in a car. Two police officers have 'discovered' the body, and the more talkative and more-knowing of the two (David Schofield) seems to have his own peculiar agenda. He plainly knows more than he's letting on, though he gives away a number of hints to the viewer.
We're then introduced to Detective Inspector Jonah Gabriel (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and his working partner, Detective Sergeant Lia Honey (Kierston Wareing). The latter is a smart-mouthed, very competent cop, who's not entirely pleased to be working with Gabriel, who, as a result of being shot in the head (the bullet is still lodged in his skull) has had a loss of memory as to what he was doing the night he was shot.
Gabriel's is the main story, and he's the character with integrity, and a passion for the truth. Curiously, as so often happens with characters in modern films who have integrity, he has had a mistress with whom he's had a child - his own wife has had several miscarriages, but is hoping for one last chance at pregnancy. In the film Gabriel - to his credit - anguishes over the fact that he's never revealed the presence of this other woman, and their son, to his wife. At least in that regard he's better than the leading character in Judge John Deed, another series we've been watching, where Deed, the judge who's shown as having enormous integrity on the justice side of things, consistently plays around with various women, including his former wife, his current lady friend, and several others.
The parallel character to Gabriel is soon introduced: Joseph Bede (Christopher Eccleston). He's a wholesale flower seller - on a big scale - and is using his business as a front for drug smuggling. Also on a big scale. Supposedly he's built up the flower business primarily as a cover for a one-off big deal that will set him up for life, and will enable him to provide constant care for his wife, who has early onset Alzheimer's. But one of the problems with the drugs game, as we see time and again in this story, is that it's a cruel master: Bede finds himself increasingly trapped inside his plan. Several others, both big and small, also come to grief before the series has finished, most of them violently.
The series may be intended to highlight the impossibility of surviving the drugs game (more than one character talks about 'just surviving', and one of the nastiest (Rafe Spall, always on the verge of insanity) says realistically, in the last episode, how he's probably only got twenty years before he'll wind up the same way as all the others), and it's plain that those who have made the big time in drugs live under the tension of being overtaken by the next villain to come along, and plainly don't enjoy the fruits of their labours.
However, this is countermanded by the fact that the corrupt police in the series, of whom there are several, seem to manage to live above the law, and thrive. Their involvement in drugs began as something that was seen as a good, but was achieved by the wrong means. Then the 'rewards' have taken over their lives and they've gone back to the trough time and again. And the chief of these, a man called Gatehouse, (Stephen Rea, in a most chilling performance), manages to manipulate and pull strings and survive assaults, like the devil himself. He's perhaps the most improbable character, when you reflect on it all, yet Rea gives him such life and personality that you come to believe he could exist. He's utterly treacherous, blatantly murderous, and convinced of his own ability to twist everything and everyone to his ends, even those who appear to be honest.
The story is utterly convoluted, and has several shocking moments, as well as some we can see coming. Almost no one is who they seem, apart from Gabriel, and he worries a good deal (since he has this memory issue with a very important event) that he may not be the honest man he hopes he is. The curious thing is that even the evil ones tell him he is honest, and that gets up their nose. He's the only one to make Gatehouse think he might have mis-stepped at one point, and that's some achievement.
Hugo Blick wrote the script, and directed and produced the series. (Blick has also been an actor.) This is a major achievement, because he has filled the series with vivid characters and cast some of the best in the business in the roles. Yes, there are some moments in the story when coincidences pile up a little too high, but the tension created and maintained throughout is extraordinary - I could feel my own nerves on edge during one particular episode - and he continually keeps us guessing as to who is really who. Some apparently good characters aren't, and some of the evil ones appear to have their moments of sincerity.
Blick's direction can be mannered - but then the best film noir directors are always mannered. That's one of the things that makes these films what they are. A great deal of the time is spent in darkness, or night, or shadows, but even when we venture out into daylight, there's a sinister feel to what we're seeing. We know, for instance, that the journalist on his motorcycle won't make it home, and this is assisted a couple of scenes before by seeing him standing in front of a full-sized photo of T E Lawrence - with his motorbike. But then Blick takes advantage of what we guess by first giving us the journalist and his motorbike a near miss, and then having him vanish into a dip in the road, while a car heads towards him. Nothing happens on the screen for a moment, there's an ominous thump, then the car quietly reappears out of the dip and proceeds. The motorcycle doesn't reappear. Finally we're taken down into the dip to see the journalist incongruously sitting on the road, dying, his bike splattered across the road, and worse, that large farm vehicle he just missed a few minutes before sounds as though it's heading his way. It's a grisly scene, but all done without any bells and whistles, and in spite of our realisation that it's going to be happen, we're still shocked.
Several other scenes shock in different ways. Gatehouse makes his way into at least three houses at different times, and on each occasion we think he's going to murder someone. Nothing ever quite happens as we expect, so that when the actual murders happen, we don't have high-pitched strings playing on the soundtrack to prematurely warn us; the murders come almost out of the blue. When he comes to Peter Glickman's son's house (Glickman is his opposite number in the story, and is absent until about half way through the series) and threatens the man's wife, the whole thing takes on a craziness via a baby monitor that we misunderstand at first. The baby is unharmed, the woman is hysterical - but unharmed - and the only disaster is the dinner burning on the stove, an echo of the soup burning after the murder of the young pregnant mother earlier on.
Then there's the confrontation between Glickman and Gatehouse, in a Dublin clock shop. It has Hitchcock written all over it, right to the point of the explosion that demolishes the place, but not the two villains. (Hitchcock is everywhere through the series, in fact, and is frequently himself put in the shade by Blick's trickery.) And the near disposal of Gatehouse in the hospital by Glickman's mistress - at least that who she appeared to be until she stabbed Glickman to death - much to our surprise. This hospital scene is improbable; firstly because we know they say Gatehouse has the heart of a 20-year-old, but he is actually in his sixties and shouldn't have withstood being blown up and shot twice; and secondly how does he know he's about to be done in by the mistress and what method she's going to use? Where is the policeman outside the door (yup, that's kind of explained later) and how come the nurse doesn't see or hear anything? Once again Blick turns our expectations on their heads. If for no other reason than his ability to undercut what we think will happen, Blick should be congratulated for a masterly series.
I didn't like some of the things that happened in it, but it was gripping viewing!
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Pillow Talk
One of the characters in the play our church is doing for its 150th anniversary celebrations is called Hopestill Pillow. Yup. And she was a real person and that was her real name. Extraordinary. Which set me to thinking about pillows as a topic, so I trolled through my clippings on Evernote to see what came up.
First there's a tweet from the witty writer who goes by the name of Kim Kierkegaardashian. He or she mixes the serious spirituality of Kierkegaard with the vacuousness Kardashain philosophy of life.
First there's a tweet from the witty writer who goes by the name of Kim Kierkegaardashian. He or she mixes the serious spirituality of Kierkegaard with the vacuousness Kardashain philosophy of life.
Weary of people, weary of myself, so weary that I need an eternity to rest. That's why I always carry a pillow when I'm travelling.
And talking about neck pillows, another favourite tweeter, Alan Jacobs, wrote: I salute you, dude who walks around the airport with your inflatable neck pillow tied around your collar.
There's something daft about this sentence.
On another tack entirely, Joan Acocella wrote an article on the grimness of the Grimms Brothers' fairy tales. There's a reference to pillows in this one: In “The Twelve Brothers,” a king who has twelve sons decides that, if his next child is a girl, he will have all his sons killed. That way, his daughter will inherit more money. So he has twelve coffins built, each with a little pillow. Little pillows! For boys whom he is willing to murder!
 |
| A super-preganancy pillow! |
And in another article related to the after-effects of abortions, we read about Emily, who, after having had an abortion, began to have flashbacks in relation to live babies: Emily’s first flashback hit her violently when she had her first ultrasound while pregnant with a “wanted” child. As time went on, she would get frequent intrusive thoughts concerning her abortion when looking at the faces of her babies. After a time, she began to also experience habitual, obsessive, and scary thoughts about hurting her children. She imagined stabbing her children with a knife one by one, suffocating them with pillows, and strangling them.
In a piece by Lois Swagerty about churches sometimes forgetting what they exist for, we read:
One way the church
may have its comfort zone stretched is when new elements of the community are
welcomed inside.
“A young lady from
the neighbourhood came in when she was high on drugs,” recalls Cindy Milbry, director
of community outreach for Redeemer Lutheran Church in Toledo. “Pastor was doing
the sermon and the girl disrupted the
whole process. Someone said, ‘Let’s call the police,’ but I told them, ‘This is
what the church is for.’ Instead I took her downstairs and fixed her a plate of
food. The next time she came in, she wasn’t as high, but she was still
disruptive. One of the girls sat down with her and she fell asleep, so we got
her a pillow and covered her up. People didn’t say as much. Next time she came, she went up front for
prayer and gave her testimony. She said the only peace she has is when she
comes to the church. She’s learning that the church is a safe place to come
and sit. And the congregation is learning that Jesus came for the unsaved, not
the saved.”
And finally, a joke which touches on the friendly rivalry between Australians and New Zealanders:
An Australian rugby
fan, a South African rugby fan and a New Zealand rugby fan are all in
Saudi Arabia, sharing a smuggled crate of booze when Saudi police rush in and
arrest them. The mere possession of alcohol is a severe offence in Saudi
Arabia, so for consuming the booze they are all sentenced to death. However,
after many months and with the help of good lawyers, they are able
successfully to appeal their sentences down to life imprisonment. By a stroke
of luck, it was a Saudi national holiday the day their trial finished, and
the benevolent sheikh decided they could be released after receiving just 20
lashes.
As they were preparing
for their punishment, the sheikh announced, "It's my first wife's birthday
today, and she has asked me to allow each of you one wish before your
whipping."
The South African was
first. He thought for a while, then said, "Please tie a pillow to my
back."
This was done, but the
pillow lasted only 10 lashes before the whip went through. When the punishment
was done, the South African had to be carried away bleeding and crying with
pain.
The Australian was next
up. After watching the South African's horror, he said smugly, "Please
fix two pillows to my back." But even two pillows could take only 15
lashes before the whip went through and the Australian was soon led away
whimpering loudly (as they do).
The New Zealander was
the last one up, but before he could say anything, the sheikh turned to him and
said, "You are from a most beautiful part of the world and your culture is
one of the finest. For this, you may have two wishes!"
"Thank you, your
most royal and merciful highness," the Kiwi replied. "In recognition
of your kindness, my first wish is that you give me not 20 lashes but 100
lashes."
"Not only are you
an honourable, handsome and powerful man, you are also very brave," the
sheikh said with an admiring look on his face. "If 100 lashes is what
you desire, then so be it. And your second wish"?
"Tie the
Australian to my back."
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
A matter of probabilities
If shrinking shirts is one of the most commonly-searched key phrases on this site – don’t ask me why – then drug rehab must be one of the least. I’ve just checked out HitTail, looking for a trace of this phrase, and there’s not one to be found. ‘Charity shop bolivia nc’, yes; ‘celia cromer wedding’, yes; ‘bugs flies compost pile’, yes; ‘all sort of home kitchen crowl insect’ – surely that must be ‘crawl’ – yes.
But nothing about drug rehab. Yet drugs and drug rehab is something I’ve written about a number of times, for various reasons.
The infinite puzzles of the Internet, eh? Who can fathom the mind of the Google Spider, or deduce her ways?
Plainly then, there’s more real concern about shrinking shirts in this world than about drug rehabilitation. Maybe it’s just that more people wear shirts than take drugs? I guess in terms of probabilities, that would be the case. Or maybe HitTail has a problem with drugs?
The other rather curious thing about key word phrases and my blog is that Henry Lewis Gates is fairly high on the list. Off the top of my head I couldn't recall who he was; nor did I remember writing about him. I had to go back through the blog itself to check him out and find he’s mentioned rather ironically as having misquoted Burns by saying it was Shakespeare who talked about his love being like a red, red rose.
He's rather more important than that -which might account for so many people looking for him.
But nothing about drug rehab. Yet drugs and drug rehab is something I’ve written about a number of times, for various reasons.
The infinite puzzles of the Internet, eh? Who can fathom the mind of the Google Spider, or deduce her ways?
Plainly then, there’s more real concern about shrinking shirts in this world than about drug rehabilitation. Maybe it’s just that more people wear shirts than take drugs? I guess in terms of probabilities, that would be the case. Or maybe HitTail has a problem with drugs?
The other rather curious thing about key word phrases and my blog is that Henry Lewis Gates is fairly high on the list. Off the top of my head I couldn't recall who he was; nor did I remember writing about him. I had to go back through the blog itself to check him out and find he’s mentioned rather ironically as having misquoted Burns by saying it was Shakespeare who talked about his love being like a red, red rose. He's rather more important than that -which might account for so many people looking for him.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Presenting the whole picture?
When I read some of the promos for drug rehab on the Net, with their pictures of luxury suites, I have to ask myself two things: just how much does it cost (and therefore who’s going to go?) and what happens when real drug addicts turn up and start making a mess in the place.
It’s fine to say that the staff have all been addicts themselves and know the problems, but presumably they also know that a clean image is probably rather unrealistic. Even people who are trying to get free of drugs are rather messy – or maybe my ideas of drug rehab are based on the film Sandra Bullock starred in called 28 Days where life was anything but clean and tidy. (Yes, I know it was about alcohol addiction, but the principle’s the same.)
All right, you can’t ‘sell’ a drug rehab place by showing the grime and grubbiness of life with a bunch of addicts. Fair enough to present pictures of beds with clean sheets and comfortable pillows. Perhaps I’d just like to see the other side represented as well.
It’s fine to say that the staff have all been addicts themselves and know the problems, but presumably they also know that a clean image is probably rather unrealistic. Even people who are trying to get free of drugs are rather messy – or maybe my ideas of drug rehab are based on the film Sandra Bullock starred in called 28 Days where life was anything but clean and tidy. (Yes, I know it was about alcohol addiction, but the principle’s the same.)All right, you can’t ‘sell’ a drug rehab place by showing the grime and grubbiness of life with a bunch of addicts. Fair enough to present pictures of beds with clean sheets and comfortable pillows. Perhaps I’d just like to see the other side represented as well.
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Opera holding hands with Rugby Players?
In the past those playing rugby at the top of their careers were still performing at a relatively low level of stress, on their bodies, on their emotional lives, on their ‘real’ jobs and on the families.
Equally, opera singers tended to live at a much slower pace, many of them living out their working lives in one or two theatres and seldom having to travel.
No more. Both rugby players and opera singers are expected to ‘play’ for longer and longer seasons, and there are penalties on both if they don’t show up for work. Opera singers in particular are expected to travel constantly in order to perform all over the world, and often don’t get the rest that’s needed after long flights. (Even as long ago as the 60s I can remember one jet-lagged opera singer arriving for rehearsal and getting into a real tantrum that was mostly the result of tiredness.)
So it’s probably not surprising that both opera singers and rugby players are turning more and more to drugs in order to maintain their high profiles. Expect to see an increasing number of opera stars requiring drug treatment over the next few years; already it’s becoming a cause of concern. I don’t think rugby players aren’t yet known for drug problems, but it can’t be far away.
Perhaps it’ll be a good thing if the world, because of an oil crisis, has to slow down on flying players – of both sorts – hither, thither and yon. Then we might find these talented people being able to work under less pressure, without having to resort to drugs - and alcohol – to keep them at the top.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Thirty
It’s not often I count the number of times a key word or phrase appears on the main page of someone’s site, but just out of curiosity I did it on the Cliffside Malibu page. The key phrase, drug rehab, appeared thirty times!
That’s the way to go, if you’re looking to get someone to pick up on that phrase while using a search engine. It’s obviously pretty essential to go full bore in such a way, because there are plenty of drug rehab places advertising on the Net.
That’s all a side issue. The actual front page for Cliffside Malibu is excellent. Sometimes a front page will have so little information on it you have to dig and dig to find what you want to know. Not so with this crowd. They have a host of things listed there, and all you have to do is scroll up and down. It’s not that they don’t have more pages, it’s just that the site tells you a great deal from the word go.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Addiction....and sin
In one of those I-wonder-what-that-site-is moments I took a look at a site on Drug Rehabilitation On their ‘aftercare’ page they give an interesting list of ‘relapse dangers’ that rehabilitated people need to watch out for.
Here’s the list:
1. Being exposed or having drugs and alcohol available.
2. Negative feelings.
3. Celebrations
4. Feeling or experiencing boredom.
5. Using a similar substance that reminds you of the old "high"
6. Physical pain or physical injury.
7. Remembering the "good ol days".
8. Having too much money.
9. Abusing prescription drugs.
10. Believing you are now "cured" and thus safe from addictions.
Interesting how several of these are also relapse danger points when it comes to sin! Being exposed to the sin that ‘always gets you’ and having negative feelings about life are both points of temptation, as are times of celebration (where the celebration is of the kind that leans towards sin rather than one of those fun parties where sin isn’t brought in).
Feeling bored, or flirting with something that reminds you of sins you’re trying to avoid are both dangerous. Remembering how ‘good’ the sin was (if that’s not too ironic an idea). Having too much money – as I said in another article recently, ‘retail therapy’ is a lie straight from the pit. And finally, believing you’re okay and can’t be tempted any more.
We don’t tend to call addicted people ‘sinners’ for the most part. There’s often an element in their makeup that’s given them a leaning towards the addiction. But not always. Some addictions just start out as straight rebelliousness, or even greed, both of which are sinful in themselves. It’s no surprise that AA meetings are often held in church halls and crypts. The whole AA concept is one that calls sin, sin, without somehow managing to use the word, and it often seems to lean towards its roots in the church.
Just getting back to the 4rehabilitation.com site for a moment, I thought this site focused on a particular centre, but in fact it’s a referral service. I notice on aftercare page they talk about an interesting offer some rehab facilities have available. If a person does relapse within six months, they can apply for re-admittance to the facility for free. Some perpetual sinners could do with the same ‘peace of mind’ service!
Here’s the list:
1. Being exposed or having drugs and alcohol available.
2. Negative feelings.
3. Celebrations
4. Feeling or experiencing boredom.
5. Using a similar substance that reminds you of the old "high"
6. Physical pain or physical injury.
7. Remembering the "good ol days".
8. Having too much money.
9. Abusing prescription drugs.
10. Believing you are now "cured" and thus safe from addictions.
Interesting how several of these are also relapse danger points when it comes to sin! Being exposed to the sin that ‘always gets you’ and having negative feelings about life are both points of temptation, as are times of celebration (where the celebration is of the kind that leans towards sin rather than one of those fun parties where sin isn’t brought in).
Feeling bored, or flirting with something that reminds you of sins you’re trying to avoid are both dangerous. Remembering how ‘good’ the sin was (if that’s not too ironic an idea). Having too much money – as I said in another article recently, ‘retail therapy’ is a lie straight from the pit. And finally, believing you’re okay and can’t be tempted any more.
We don’t tend to call addicted people ‘sinners’ for the most part. There’s often an element in their makeup that’s given them a leaning towards the addiction. But not always. Some addictions just start out as straight rebelliousness, or even greed, both of which are sinful in themselves. It’s no surprise that AA meetings are often held in church halls and crypts. The whole AA concept is one that calls sin, sin, without somehow managing to use the word, and it often seems to lean towards its roots in the church.
Just getting back to the 4rehabilitation.com site for a moment, I thought this site focused on a particular centre, but in fact it’s a referral service. I notice on aftercare page they talk about an interesting offer some rehab facilities have available. If a person does relapse within six months, they can apply for re-admittance to the facility for free. Some perpetual sinners could do with the same ‘peace of mind’ service!
Friday, March 23, 2007
Gonna struggle no more!
Well, you learn something every day – or should, since there’s a vast amount of information out there in the world!
The Dr Kellogg who developed Kellogg’s cornflakes, and other well-known cereals, began in a little place called Battle Creek, in Michigan. Kellogg wasn’t just a cereal man, but believed deeply in the benefits of holistic medicine, that is, medicine that wasn’t primarily drug-focused, but based in the normal healing of the body and other natural resources. He thought saunas were great for healing, and having spent even a few minutes in a sauna each time I go to the swimming pool, I can only agree. Although it’s bloomin’ hot to get into for starters!
Battle Creek is around five miles from the Stone Hawk drug rehab centre – or perhaps it’s more accurate to say it the other way round: Stone Hawk is around five miles from downtown Battle Creek. And Stone Hawk is also a place that believes strongly in a drug-free treatment of addicts. (Apparently many drug centres continue to use drugs as part of their treatment.) I read through a good deal of the information on their site: apart from
being one of the best rehab centres in the US, with a 76% success rate, they’re situated beside a private lake called St Mary’s Lake. Have a look at the photo: just looking at it makes you feel better!
I’ve never had an addiction problem, thank the Lord (the first cigarette I was offered by an uncle years ago did nothing but make me cough and splutter – to the amusement of my assembled relatives – and that put me off smoking entirely), though like most human beings, no doubt, I’ve struggled with various things that want to take over my life at times. But the people at Stone Hawk are all ex-addicts, so they know the difficulties, and know that it’s possible to break free. Sounds a bit like Christianity, really!
Disclosure statement
The Dr Kellogg who developed Kellogg’s cornflakes, and other well-known cereals, began in a little place called Battle Creek, in Michigan. Kellogg wasn’t just a cereal man, but believed deeply in the benefits of holistic medicine, that is, medicine that wasn’t primarily drug-focused, but based in the normal healing of the body and other natural resources. He thought saunas were great for healing, and having spent even a few minutes in a sauna each time I go to the swimming pool, I can only agree. Although it’s bloomin’ hot to get into for starters!
Battle Creek is around five miles from the Stone Hawk drug rehab centre – or perhaps it’s more accurate to say it the other way round: Stone Hawk is around five miles from downtown Battle Creek. And Stone Hawk is also a place that believes strongly in a drug-free treatment of addicts. (Apparently many drug centres continue to use drugs as part of their treatment.) I read through a good deal of the information on their site: apart from
being one of the best rehab centres in the US, with a 76% success rate, they’re situated beside a private lake called St Mary’s Lake. Have a look at the photo: just looking at it makes you feel better!I’ve never had an addiction problem, thank the Lord (the first cigarette I was offered by an uncle years ago did nothing but make me cough and splutter – to the amusement of my assembled relatives – and that put me off smoking entirely), though like most human beings, no doubt, I’ve struggled with various things that want to take over my life at times. But the people at Stone Hawk are all ex-addicts, so they know the difficulties, and know that it’s possible to break free. Sounds a bit like Christianity, really!
Disclosure statement
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