The Reality Pill

we are in a world gone crazy with drugs.

like a 60's futuristic spoof, there's a pill for everything.

it's interesting how much these movies, like soylent greet, thx 1138, 1984 and the like have really hit it on the head. the culprit used to be uppers and downers. celebrities, entertainers and people in the public eye would take these pills to modulate their mood. to get up for a show, or come down after a show. to deal with the stress and strain of a glorious existence. in times gone past scotch, wine and opium did the trick. let's face it, like is stressful. but is it really more different now? well, yes. we have become masters of reality. but in the mastering of reality, have we gotten a bit too smart for ourselves? has our understanding of the human condition, the human mind and the intricate minutia of day to day modern life and our own trickery and lust lulled us down a dark corridor of inescapable drug/pill and pharmaceutical dependence?

let's look at the trend. increasingly individuals are being diagnosed with bi-polar disorder, depression, psychosis, anxiety and post-traumatic stress..... what that is, i understand completely, what it is, and how it's being used, i'm not really sure. diagnosis has now become a warren-report type preoccupation with it's own grassy knoll, lay experts, magic bullet theorist and conflicting opinions of attribution, conspiracy, gunners, and the like. children are being diagnosed as attention deficit, manic, anxious, depressed, psychotic by parents who are working and not present... my god. what kind of world do we live in where children are now robbed of their varying mental states and the attendant power to make sense of a world gone mad?

it's been said that insanity is a sane reponse to an insane world. but, the whole debate can rage on and on until the entire rain forest of sanity is whittled down to a toothpick, and individually, we will not be able to arrive at any form of truth outside of our own ability to discern it. (?). that is to say, we can not impose a "super" reality or "better" reality than the sober one we wake with when we are on nothing.

in the realm of what is "real" we have no choice but to somehow, divine it from within as we interpret that which is without. reality is the best pill, the best treatment, even in it's worst form. if we felt no stress, no pain, no depression, no euphoria, no anxiety, no neurosis, no paranoia, heard no voices, saw no sights, could not conceive of any form of twisted fantasy, then "we" would no longer be human. even if we felt "high" all the time it would not be "better" than the opportunity for sobriety. The only real high, is the high of being alive and feeling alive and experiencing life, in all it's beauty and wretchedness. reality is the gravy on the mashed potatoes of the mind.

no crutch, no dimunition, no sunglasses, balm, tincture or spell, should be allowed to interfere with this. none should be relied upon.

i guarantee you, if we felt high all the time and had to take a pill to feel the sobering effects of reality, then we would all be addicts. what a sad world we would live in, where we would have to get high, to essentially not be high. and isn't that what we are trying to do? isn't that what is happening where a pill is available for us to take strip a level of feedback off of our lives? if we had to get high to be sober, we would work for this high, we would sell our bodies for this high. we would do anything we had to, to get this wonderous drug. for this drug could provide infinite layers of nuance and complexity upon our state of mind and existence, and could offer us infinitely telescoping perspecives of stunning detail and pristine focus on all aspects of reality, past, present and future.

when we really look at it, (and thank god we don't have to, to BE able to look at it) the only real gift there is to be given is the gift of reality. reality, begat existence, existence begat matter, matter begat the universe, the universe begat planets, suns, rocks, energy. and that begat life. and life begat the opportunity to experience reality.

we should be trying to give reality to someone, to each other, to ourselves and to life. and we should be trying to live in it to the best of our ability together, indivdividually and for all time. our sole pre-occupation shoudl be trying to get in tune with it to abide by it...

as mental health professionals, doctors, theorist, educators, politicians, artists, parents, friends, family members, leaders, simple beings, we should be giving this opportunity to one another, creating opportunities for it to exist, be given birth to, to persist. we should be contemplating and meditating on it's "reality" and meaning. we should be praying to the god of "reality' and the reality of "god".....

....and if we are on drugs, or psychotropic medication, then we are blotting out the very sun of existence.

in the event that debilitating illness is present, or inhuman suffering is being experienced, then yes, let's alleviate that. let's break though that, let's heal that, give compassion and understanding to that, throw love upon it, caring into it, attention towards it, assistance out of it's dark recesses with humanity, warmth and tenderness..... but let us always strive to give the opportunity for individuals to experiece their birthright reality, to their fullest, and allow individuals to shine their light and personhood upon the world.