they never get anything done because they are so desperate for the moment, for believing that they can keep the moment and not have to face the next one.

it’s a sad truth, but addicts always lose because they can’t handle a fundamental tenet of Buddhism: everything flows: everything keeps changing; no moment stays.

An addict, he’ll want to hold that moment forever when he’s drinking the same drinks and nodding to the same tunes he’s drunk and nodded to a million times before.
He tells himself that this time it is different.
He tells himself that this time it’s gonna last, this time the escape is complete.
The pain that he’s running from and that is waiting inside of him — that it won’t catch up with him this time. Because he’s careening into infinite expansion. Because he’s breaking free. he’s winning

An addict, he’s a victim of circumstances — of his own circumstances, of the hurts he’s decided he can only run from.

An addict, he’s getting older but can’t admit it.

An addict, he’s serious but not really.

different people have different problems
we’re not here to judge
if he’s being a baby
or he’s a man broken by forces that would break any man
we’re not here to tell him who he is

but we can tell him that
if he carries on like this
he won’t get anything done
and he’ll die sorry
that he didn’t give and get more love
that he didn’t give and get more joy
that he didn’t give and get more

Various authors and editors
copyright AM Watson

[Part of A political writer falls apart, which is somehow part of NYC Journal – Politics]