Bikini

Something I found myself doing periodically in my uneventful holiday break was watch documentaries, one of the few things that I would say I actually like doing. A good number of these were about illicit drug usage.

Psychoactive substances have always been an area of interest for me. Just how do these compounds push us into the states they do and why do these compounds (and these states) have such a hold on some of us who end up using? And what can be done to those who have entered into a seemingly unbreakable cycle of addiction (some unwittingly while some not as much)? It's a very multifaceted topic that easily succeeds in holding my attention.

Recently, during one of my journeyings through cyberspace, I came across a post about a person's whose worldview had been significantly altered after taking acid (apparently a common phenomenon). When watching television or movies, he would see actors on a set. Watching commercials, he would only see individuals pushing products they have absolutely no interest in. He also began seeing his life as being a much more menial affair than it had been prior (e.g. doing a 9-5 he had no interest in, spending money on meaningless things, etc).

Something about that post really resonated within me. Something along the lines of how there is probably so much in my own life that is appreciable if only I stick my head out of the trees for one moment to see the forest. Now, I think it's safe to say that I'll probably never do acid, so epiphanies are not going to occur through those means. But, still, I find that something is different in the way I approach my day-to-day. The world somehow seems a bit bigger than it did before, the sky a bit higher. I find myself being less pessimistic about those things that I do, seeing opportunity where there was once but a dead-end.

Taken together, tomorrow seems just a bit more hopeful.