There have been times when I wished I could escape…sit in a bar and drink myself into oblivion; but alcohol is not my friend. I can have one beer, but those times when I foolishly convinced myself that I could handle much more, ended with my head hung over a toilet bowl and later, wishing I were dead. The only thing in my experience that is worse than a hangover, is having a bad case of stomach flu.
I have oftentimes desired to experience the high, so sought after by those who have used marijuana on a daily basis. These people are energized by weed, allowing them to stay awake for hours or work feverishly at a task. They have a metabolism far different than my own. When smoking pot became nearly as prevalent as smoking cigarettes to some, I rarely indulged, as it lulled me into overwhelming sleepiness, like Dorothy napping amidst a field of popples.
There are some who possess a degree of purity, or they have been brainwashed by religion, and they never give in to the temptations of alcohol or drugs; but their cabinets are stuffed with pharmaceuticals. Their pervasive anxiousness and other symptoms are masked, helping them to confront life’s challenges or to remain in denial. I have never been able to self-medicate and I refuse all drugs except for the occasional pain killer.
Television, movies, and Facebook provide a huge distraction for people wanting a temporary escape from daily life. These things rarely work for me because television generally bores me to tears with its stupidity and it’s over abundance of sports. Most movies are too fraught with violence and graphic sex, rather than having a poignant story line. Facebook is the current means of communication whether we like it or not. When I was much younger, a daily run was my escape from the constant demand of a baby or toddler. Later, I found that I could escape briefly into the garden, but only in the summer months and only if I get out there early enough in the day before the heat becomes too intense. Sleep is another form of escape, but only when it is dreamless.
Our modern life has become so stressful that it has become necessary to look for regular and consistent means of vanishing from that life. If you observe other species, the only thing they need to escape from, is a predator. Most of their time is occupied with the job of finding food, water, and shelter, and finding a mate and raising young. The rest of the time, they are content just to be. Our human discontent and our inability to accept each moment as it comes, has given rise to our endless need to break away. We must ask ourselves what it is, from which we are wanting to escape. It is not life itself that challenges us, but the illusions that we humans create for ourselves. The only thing we must escape, are our illusions.
