Tag Archives: family

Sometimes I feel the need to make sense of our society’s drug policy. For a brief moment in the ’60s (or so I’ve heard, having not made my entrance into this world until 1970) there was a subculture of people experimenting with altered states of consciousness, often induced chemically. But besides that, we have all kinds of factions fighting against each other, none of them going anywhere except to hell in a handbasket: the “cool” drug counterculture, the illegal drug making/selling economy, the drug war economy, the poor souls fighting addiction, the puritan idealism that inevitably adopts a hypocritical position of condemning some chemicals utterly while accepting others without question, the pharmaceutical industry, the food industry, the tobacco industry, the alcohol industry, etc.

Okay, well, the legalized industries are doing fine. But we often excuse their products as harmless, though in the last few decades we have been leaning the other way with alcohol and tobacco.

But we still allow people, including children, to walk around souped up on caffeine and sugar and few of us recognize these effects as altered states. (I don’t know about you, but the most positive and productive I am all day is the hour or so when I’m flying on my morning caffeine fix.) We are only just beginning to see them as powerful. And our inevitable response seems to be to condemn them.

Are we capable of a more intelligent handling of the issue?

No matter where we stand on whatever drug issue, legal or otherwise, we all seem to be operating under the same common assumption: altered states are secretly fun, to some degree dangerous and always carry at least a small stigma of shamefulness. Even with coffee, aren’t we addicts all at least a little sheepish when admitting our fixation? Sobriety is held as the ultimate righteous state.

But might altered consciousness be something humans need? Is it ever beneficial? We might admire a Native American peyote ceremony for the soul searching and mystical insight it provides, but none of us is allowed to do it. How would someone’s reputation change in your eyes if you found out they’d done acid?

We allow, “I was just experimenting in college” and “I didn’t inhale.” We’ve gotten to where we allow people to be reformed users, like George W., for example.

But for someone to be a respected member of mainstream society who proves their worth on a daily basis and is also a known pot smoker? Nope.

We all have understandable fears based on anecdotal evidence of some type of chemical destroying someone we know and/or love. We may even decide to buck the present trend and be against alcohol consumption. But cars and motorcycles maim and kill lots of people, and isn’t that an altered state for a lot of people? The power, speed, independence, road rage, status symbol possession… Most of the time we drive in a fairly sober, utilitarian manner, but who among us doesn’t ever floor it or take that corner just a little faster than necessary? We definitely are not in our natural state, feet on the ground, head surrounded by sky. Our heavy metal boxes put us in a certain frame of mind.

But we would never dream of outlawing them.

Our tv watching puts us in an altered state, a passive, drooling spectatorship. How are the hours wasted and life energy atrophied away any different in front of the tube than passed out with painkillers?

Okay. Granted they are different. I’m just being dramatic in an attempt to make the point that we try to avoid sobriety in many different ways, some of them demonized as too dangerous and others labeled as simply “entertainment” or “transportation” or “java” some other moniker that makes them untouchable.

What would happen if we said, yes, we need to escape. Yes, grownups are going to be allowed to choose their method of altering with no legislating and then they will be held responsible for any consequences of their choices. The pluses and minuses of every method could be discussed freely. We could openly admit that lots of things we do everyday, even something so innocuous as having a drama queen fit, are forays out of our “right minds.” We could talk without shame about what we are looking for outside of our sobriety, about what we find there.

Or should we just continue to behave as though stone cold sobriety were the only way to be, ever. That there is no time or place for getting out of your head or your day to day perspective, unless perhaps you choose Zen meditation, prayer, yogic breathing. Newsflash — these things are seen as a little bit crazy, too. Innocuously so, but nevertheless.

I hope this article did not induce any sort of altering in the reader’s awareness of reality as they’ve always assumed it to be — any effects of change in point of view, feelings of lightheadedness or hallucinations were purely unintentional. Unless you go for that sort of thing. In which case, you’re welcome.

My parents never had any friends. I know you’re saying, come on, don’t exaggerate, but I’m being perfectly serious. They still don’t. It’s the two of them, punto final. They are not particularly anti-social, they just can’t be bothered.

So, having had no example, I’ve always had to make up the adult friend thing as I went along. And I’ve moved around… a lot. So whatever friendships I’ve managed to build up have fallen apart. With Facebook I am able to salvage some, and with blogging I find I can get super attached, because I don’t feel like I ever have to lose any of the great people I meet over the internet, assuming we all continue to choose to inhabit cyberspace, and assuming the continuing existence of cyberspace. (Now that we have it, can you imagine our reality without it?)

But in real life. That’s another story.

I joined a local group of homeschoolers. I met them at the park a couple of months ago. Instantly, I was home. I’d known them forever. Not a moment of tension or awkwardness.

Great, right?

Leave it to me to put a negative spin on it.

First, they’ve known each other for years and are like a real community. It would take me years to catch up, even though they do make me feel welcome now. Wah, woe is me, I wish I’d stayed somewhere so I could be an integral part of some great group… blah blah blah. Pity pot.

Second, there is no guarantee we will stay in this area for any length of time, and if we leave they just get added to the Facebook list of blasts from the past. My husband and I have an agreement that we will go where his career leads us. My life is about my kids, who I can raise anywhere, my writing, which I can generate anywhere, languages, which I can speak anywhere, cooking and crafts… you get the idea. I am willing to make this sacrifice to be a part of the wonderful partnership we have. Most of the time it doesn’t feel like any kind of sacrifice at all, especially if I think of my parents’ social norm.

And I really like these folks. They make sense to me. We are on the same page. I don’t want to lose that… again.

There is a get-together, a winter party, tonight. I haven’t RSVPed, I am using the lice, the fact that today is my husband’s payday and thus I need to run multiple errands, and my own social inertia to blow it off. But I’ve been told by one of the moms that I can just show up, and I secretly really want to go. I’m at the point now where I am entering the “Cheers” phase of belonging to the group, where at least one person will instantly know my name and greet me when I walk in the door.

I think it might be a need we have, as social animals, to be recognized by not just the people in our hut but by the village at large. Some kind of security, some kind of mental and emotional nourishment. Don’t know how my parents manage without it, but I guess that’s their prob.

I’m so glad I woke up early this morning so I can sit here in the quiet (such a rare treat!) and get my head together. I’m so glad you were here to listen.

We found lice eggs on my baby son’s head, so it was time for the buzz. He’s 20 months old and had just grown in the sweetest curls. But he’s too squirmy to have to search through his head all the time, and I hate the thought of putting poison on his baby head, so we just buzzed him. It made me sad.

Even sadder, I keep finding eggs and bugs in my littlest daughter’s hair, and she has never had her hair cut (only bang trims) in all her 6-1/2 years. Her lovely brown ringlets went all the way down to the small of her back. But enough is enough. Luckily she and her Dad just finished the Matilda book and movie, so she is thrilled to have a cute bob just like the lead character’s. And it does look sweet. But me and my sentimentality, I had to shed a tear first before chopping it off.

I feel totally drained. Every morning this week has been spent/wasted dealing with bugs. I poisoned all our heads Monday, but today I still found bugs in my little girl’s hair. Back to the store, more poison, more expensive stronger brand. Damned if there weren’t still LIVE BUGS in her hair an hour after treatment.

Sigh.

I’m going to try the oil treatment tomorrow, see if something more natural won’t do the trick (oil is supposed to suffocate them if you completely saturate your hair and leave it on for a couple hours. And it’s not poisonous!)

Anyway, enough bitching. Just in case anyone wondered why I haven’t had anything intelligent or insightful to say in a few days, it is because my critical powers are focussed on searching every strand of hair for bloodsucking parasites, and my eyesight has been encompassing nothing of interest.

Yesterday was a fun end for us to the 2008 regular season of NFL, watching Carolina and Miami carve themselves a path to the post-season excitement.

First off, let me say congrats to Joy and her Vikings, and best of luck in the playoffs!

Secondly, my son’s Panthers ended up top in their division, as did my husband’s Dolphins. In fact, Miami did so well compared to last year that they are one of the all time top turn-around teams in NFL history!

My father’s Lions, well. I guess if you’re going to stink, you may as well do it perfectly! Really reek up the joint! And you know, first round draft pick, and all the rest. I guess if you’re a Lions fan you’ve gotten used to the view from the bottom by now. And with a record like theirs, you are 100% guaranteed not to do any worse next year!

Similar to my Raiders. They did win one more game than last year, so perhaps they are on a slow crawl back to a winning season. Maybe in another decade they’ll actually make it to the playoffs!

I’m from California, and the Gold Rush of 1849 has always been one of my most favorite periods in history.

The other day my daughter and I were watching a documentary of the pioneers and the Gold Rush. It told the story of a family who went west to seek their fortune. Usually men went without their wives and children and just hoped to make a bunch of money to bring home, or send for their families later. But this family took off together.

When they arrived, the lady found that the miners would pay five dollars to have a meal cooked by a woman, which of course was a lot of money back then. Well, maybe not to a guy who just found a bunch of gold nuggets in a creek and has blown phenomenal amounts of cash on booze and prostitutes. Five bucks for a “home cooked” meal would be nothing.

But anyway, these miners had gone so long without being fed by their womenfolk, not to mention even seeing a woman up close, that she was greatly appreciated. So much so that she was able to open a restaurant and make a tidy living off her culinary skills.

Now I know that some people fantasize about being Eddie Van Halen, or Angelina Jolie, or maybe even Bill Gates. Having fame, fortune and glory is a commonplace desire. But I haven’t felt as envious of anyone’s life as I felt hearing about this woman feeding all those men, winning their innocent affections and being compensated handsomely.

I imagine, being her, I would feel like the most beneficent goddess mother, appeasing the boys’ stomachs and comforting their loneliness (she had her husband there, so I’m assuming that she was relatively safe from untoward advances. Either way, nothing inappropriate figures into this particular fantasy of mine!) They would adore me, looking up at me with their sad, scruffy, hungry puppy dog faces as I set before them some stew and biscuits still hot from the oven. It would fill their bellies and warm their hearts and their homesickness wouldn’t sting quite so badly for just those few moments. After their many months of perilous journeying, miserable gold panning, lousy food and rough male company, just the swishing of my clean skirts as I went to fetch the coffee would be like music to their ears.

Silly, I know. But if a person’s fantasies reveal their essence, then I am all about food, earning a good living and being an adored mother-figure.

When listing my favorite writers, my husband comes second, then Ousmane Sembène, Carlos Fuentes, Assia Djebar, and Beryl Markham. It’s impossible to list every author I admire and can’t get enough of, so I just toss out whichever names come to mind at the time.

But my husband is always second. And the name I always put first, and I know my husband doesn’t mind, is my father, Lewis Horton.

A few months ago my Dad sent me an article from his local paper written about his recent publication of a short story in an anthology called Big Water. He has one whole shelf of a bookcase filled with anthologies and magazines that he’s been published in over the years.

But that shelf is not the reason I list him first.

I have watched him practice his craft since my earliest memories. Every evening he would retire to his bedroom where he had a desk and a typewriter (now he has a computer and an office in his home). He would be in there for at least three hours.

A few years ago he finally had his first book published: Escape From Mexico. It is a memoir of his adventure on a weekend leave in Mexico while he was in the US Army. It is a funny and exciting story, so well written that at the end, when he is describing his escape from a Mexican prison, I couldn’t help wondering if he made it out alive, even though I knew perfectly well he was sitting at home the very moment I was reading it! I admire him so much for teaching me that even if it takes 20 or 30 years, you can get published.

And now, after over five years of trying to sell his second book, he has again succeeded. I don’t even know the title yet, but I will definitely post an update when it gets closer to publication.

He is also my favorite writer because when I read his stuff, it is a guaranteed laugh. I’m not sure if other people find it as gut-bustingly hilarious as I do, because they don’t have the added advantage I have of being able to hear his voice and see the facial expressions he would be using when telling the story. Reading his work is never just me in my own head digesting meaning; it has visual and audio effects as well, which makes for a lot of fun. Any sense of humor I have I attribute to his example and influence.

I got a lot of great stuff from my mother as well, just as good but in a whole other realm, interests such as cooking and baking, sewing, gardening, mothering, and having faith. I owe her just as big.

But when I see his picture in that newspaper clipping, holding up a book in which yet another of his stories has been published, and when I hear that, finally, he will have another book on the shelves, I am proud that I have a father who had a dream, went for it, and continues to pursue his craft and explore his talent. I hope I have inherited at least some of his determination, and that I can be even half as successful.