Watched Oprah yesterday (why is that coloured with faint shamefacedness as though watching her is a secret but somewhat depraved pleasure?). Anyway on it she had a woman touting a book called Women Food and God. Yeah, interesting, I thought. I'm not obese but I'd like to shed a few kilos (as I suppose 98% of women would). Anyway, the book was not about diet. It was about why women turn to food when they aren't hungry in the first place. Bingo! Because they are searching for that something, that sense of wonder, that sense of something more which if they can just eat enough they might feel. Although I do have a problem with food (barely controlled...there's a 300lb woman inside me screaming to get out) I could relate that directly to my problem with Spider Solitaire. Oh, how trivial, how trite, how totally uninteresting I hear my ever present critic say. Who the hell would waste good blog space on a minute matter such as a Solitaire addiction.
Well, me.
It's serious to me. Who knows what other hidden addictions people contend with. There are the biggies; alcohol, drugs, food, gambling - but couldn't obsessive compulsives be tarred with the same brush. Playing SS for an hour or more, wasting time, could be seen as an addiction. Hell, it IS an addiction. So why devote so much time to this foolish game? Because, as for food, drug and gambling addicts, it NUMBS me. I don't have to think. Some part of my brain is totally absorbed with the game allowing another part (the real part?) to participate as an observer and to therefore not to have to reflect? I don't know. Perhaps it prevents me from thinking of how I do not treasure this life, this Breath, as it should be treasured. I waste time. I lose time...and time is running out. I'll be 55 in a few months. How much longer do I think I have? Yet I waste time by playing the mind-emotion numbing SS?
So that was a good revelation - and because of it (thank you Oprah and Geneen whatever your name was) I avoided playing SS yesterday and have had only one game today (while waiting for the screen to load). Perhaps it won't cure me of it but at least I'll have this small voice in my head asking, what are you avoiding? Or, more to the point, what am I missing? Geneen likened this addiction to food to the persons search for something that would 'fill' them; that sense of wonder, that sense of the divine. Perhaps, as she and Oprah said, the 'problem' is an invitation to search for that which is real, which has meaning, the Divine, the Soul.
On to more mundane matters. Jack the Lad, or the Earl of Jack, came out of his aviary for only the second time yesterday (and the third today). He wants to attack R, which is how we tempted him out yesterday. Today he knew what it was about and was waiting at the door. At first he concentrated on attacking R's feet. Gave R a rake to hold in front as a shield. When he got bored with that he started to explore a little. Algernon was present in the poinciana tree but didn't show much interest. When it was time to return Jack to the aviary he stepped onto the branch without too much trouble.
It's difficult as at the same time as Jack is out we're trying to keep an eye on five galahs who are very adept in spreading out in as many directions.
Took Marvin for a walk with us when we checked and repaired fence in a paddock the horses were moved into today. He was very brave, very good. I think he enjoys these little excursions - about as much as he enjoys being returned to his aviary at the end. It's a big adventure for such a little bird.
Targeting with Dimitri continues to go well. Sat in a different spot on the verandah which put him off a bit but he came around in the end. One day he'll run to the target without hesitation.
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