Sharing a Halloween tale

Subject: Sharing a Halloween tale Sun 28 Oct 2012, 4:07 pm

From the blog of Jana Burson
"The Goblins of Addiction"
It's almost Halloween, and that means it's time for a good goblin story. In this fable, I've borrowed heavily from the ideas of C.S.Lewis's Screwtape Letters.

Despair and Deceit were strolling along a dirty street in the poor part of the city, boasting, bragging, and lying, as these spirits are prone to do.

Deceit stepped over the outstretched legs of a man propped against the boarded windows of a store long out of business. “Ah,” he said to his companion Despair, after scrutinizing the man’s face, “This is an example of my work. This man is named Adam. Last night he spent all of his money on drugs and now he sits in the street, too depressed to go home and face his wife’s rage. He had ideas about getting clean in the past, but I took care of that. I convinced him that he’s an addict, he’ll always be an addict, and he can’t live without drugs. I whispered to him that even if he stopped using drugs, life would be dreary and painfully boring, and he would lose all of his friends. It’s all a lie of course, but that’s what I do best. When he listens to me he forgets that he doesn’t have friends anyway. All he has now are drug-using buddies who would abandon him in a minute if trouble occurred. He forgets that he’s not having fun, and hasn’t for some time.”

Despair frowned. Despair was so tired of Deceit’s boasts and lies, and decided to remind him of a recent failure. “But weren’t there two of them? He had a friend named Joe, also addicted, who chose to ignore you and instead listened to Hope, who showed him a new way of life. She convinced him he could lead a better life, didn’t she? And Joe has been lost to you since?”

Deceit sniffed softly. “I don’t know why you always focus on the negative. Yes, Joe slipped – temporarily – from my grasp. It wasn’t my fault. I told Joe the same lies as Adam, but Joe whispered a small prayer, then bam! Hope, one of those meddling Silver Spirits, was there in a flash. Right away she was at his elbow, whispering about how special he was, how much goodness (Deceit spat out the word) he had inside him, how much courage he had...”

Deceit paused to wipe some spittle from the corner of his mouth then continued, “It was clear interference. Every time an addicted human gets all fragile and broken, and asks for help...those Silver Spirits crowd around and we can’t get to our humans. It’s unfair.”

Despair ignored Deceit’s complaining comments. “Was that big woman with her? The one that wears those awful bright colors and weaves flowers into her hair? The one named Love? She hugs everybody she meets, and hangs around Hope. She’s interfered with our human projects in the past. Not mine, of course. I’m too smart for that”

Deceit raised one eyebrow, knowing for a fact that Despair did have failures, but never acknowledged them. Deceit talked last week with a few of his friends, Hate, Lie, and some of the others, and Deceit heard a tasty bit of gossip about a spectacular bungle of Despair’s a few years back. It seems that even after Despair had managed to maneuver his human project right into prison for a drug related offense, this human had started going to Narcotics Anonymous meetings while in prison. After that, Despair lost control. Not only did this human get clean and stay clean, but then went on to help dozens of other addicts, who in turn helped dozens more. Oh, it was a splashy mess. Rumors flew for months. Deceit had just started to coyly refer to this story but Despair interrupted.

“And Peace and Serenity, those blond twins that go around smiling like simpletons, were they there also?

“Not at first. But they followed behind and came to my human a few weeks later. Courage came immediately, and he and Love practically carried my human into an addiction treatment program. Then some other big Spirits came to help, too. They were great huge guys who pushed me way off to the side. I couldn’t get near him! I have their names somewhere..." Here Deceit hunted through the moldy pockets of his dirty clothing, and extracted a bit of paper with some writing on it. ”Ah. Yes. They were named Empathy, Respect, and Humor. Between those big ones, and all of the welcoming people at the addiction treatment program, I got pushed to the side, and he couldn’t hear my lies......”

Immediately, Despair became livid. He interrupted angrily, “Oh I just hate that Humor! I hate him! He laughs at me, makes jokes at my expense, says how ridiculous I am. He goes to those Narcotics Anonymous meetings, too...you wouldn’t think they’d be laughing at those meetings, but they do. They laugh at things they ought not to laugh at, and it makes us look foolish and small.”

Deceit, enjoying Despair’s angry outburst, said smugly, “I know how to get rid of Humor. It’s easy. Just ask our fellow spirit Resentment to come with you. He has a special shield that can protect against Humor. Resentment is so strong that he can push away not only Humor but also Love and Hope. He is very persistent, too. He can overpower most of the Silver Spirits, except for one. Beware of Forgiveness, for he’s stronger than all the others. I’ve seen Forgiveness pick up Resentment, even with all of his oppressive weight, and fling him aside like a feather. It’s quite shocking.”

“Of course,” Deceit continued, “Resentment sometimes sneaks back, even after being banished by Forgiveness. He’s stealthy. He often creeps up to recovering addicts with years of recovery, and begins to whisper about how the other Narcotics Anonymous members don’t listen or give him the respect that they should. Sometimes Resentment pairs with Discontent, who always speaks with a sly soft voice, and murmurs about how group members aren’t doing the meeting the “right” way, and how these meetings are a waste of time. This furtive approach of Discontent’s has lead many recovering addicts to stop attending meetings, usually a necessary first step before we drive the addict down the slippery slope toward relapse.”

Deceit was tiring of Despair’s lecturing tone. What a windbag, he thought to himself. As if Deceit had never heard of Resentment and Discontent’s abilities. “But it’s not just the silver spirits I’ve had to contend with. Really, the most vexing were those NA members. Even though they have no special powers at all, they talked to Joe, and told their own stories. As you know, when one of these recovering addicts shares with another, there’s that awful Unnamed Power that surrounds them, and we can’t hear or see what happens. All we see is a bright cloud that gathers like a mist, with crackling noises and bolts of white light coming from it. Whatever happens in that cloud, it results in our failure with our human projects. First they stop using drugs. Then they work those twelve steps of theirs, and then they begin to walk with many of the Silver Spirits, like Faith, Surrender, Hope, and Acceptance. And they stop listening to us, and stop taking us seriously.”

“I’ve had one of these humans look straight into my face after a series of big disappointments, shrug her shoulders, mumble something about life on life’s terms, and keep going with her recovery. It should have driven her back to drug use. In fact, I reminded her of how unfair it all was, and that since she had gone to all the trouble of quitting drugs and getting into recovery, she deserved for the rest of her life to go smoothly. But she had just worked their wretched Step 3, and was determined not to try to control her life, but to let her Higher Power do it. We have no power over someone like that.”

Despair decided that Deceit needed advice, “Joe is talking with recovering people and walking with the Silver Spirits now, but just wait a bit. Give it a few months. Then see if you can talk sense into him. Many times after the novelty of recovery wears off, and the addict begins to see that real efforts must be made to stay in recovery, the addict decides to lapse back to drug us. Nobody expects much from him when he’s using, and it’s easier for him.”

Deceit was fed up with Despair’s condescending suggestions. Careful not to turn his back to Despair, who of course could not be trusted, Deceit said goodbye, and walked toward his next human project. Yes, he thought to himself, there is something to what Despair said. I’ll visit Joe in a month or two. I’ll wait until someone at a meeting says something that hurts his feelings – Joe has all of his feelings magnified anyway, at this point in recovery – and then I’ll get his attention...I’ll ask Resentment to work with me....”

Guest

What a great story Dee! Thank you for sharing that with us!

Subject: Re: Sharing a Halloween tale Wed 23 Jan 2013, 6:47 pm

Your welcome, I found it on Jana Burson's blog. She is actually a doctor who practices in a methadone clinic as well as a blog writer. I love visiting her site. Here is the link if you would like to check it out.
http://janaburson.wordpress.com/

Guest

Thank you Dee! I will check it out!

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