Thread: The Possibilities of Pleasure: Why I Feel Like Getting High

This article deals with addiction and grief. I've only included the link, not to spam, but because of the length, it wouldn't be appropriate to paste the entire thing.


The Possibilities of Pleasure: Why I Feel Like Getting High Tonight
by Max Gordon
April 12, 2005
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Several weeks before she died, my mother and I had a conversation.

I was standing in her kitchen cooking dinner, which I burned because I was flustered. She was sitting in her wheelchair with a purple shawl around her shoulders. It was April, and there had been a chill in the house. I couldn’t remember how our conversation had begun that day, but since they all ended up at the same place, it didn’t matter.

“Give yourself some time to figure things out,” she begged. “How do you know what you want? You’re still a child in so many ways. You shouldn’t give yourself a label until you are absolutely sure what it means. You'll regret it later. And you definitely shouldn’t run around telling the whole wide world about this thing.”

“I’m sure I’m gay, Mom,” I said.

http://possiblepleasure.blogspot.com

I've only read the first section of it, and I'll definitely go back and read the rest when I have time, but oh, what an awful coming out of the closet conversation! Did that really happen? I was raised in a Catholic family and even mine wasn't that bad!

Took me an hour or so to read, but it was worth it. This was incredibly powerful stuff. During the time I read it and took breaks to complete what I should have done in the first place, I felt the pain, self-hatred, abandonment, and at last the recovery you described so well. Simply incredible, to state simply. This has both made and ruined my day.

This story kicks...like an unborn with a grudge to bear.

The powerful message it contains, remains with you.