THE EVE OF DESTRUCTION

I remember a friend telling me once, Sometime before you die, you have to try just one shot of meperidine. It takes you to instant, euphoric La- La Land. On one occasion that I had hip surgery I got a shot of it. That was really enough, especially when I found out it had also been in the epidural I had for 2 or 3 days.

For my friend, meperidine was a threshold. You know what that is, don’t you? It’s just a point of beginning. He went on to bigger and better things. It opened him up to becoming a full-blown heroin addict. Drink a little beer, smoke a little pot, and then shoot or snort coke was the way a young man from California explained threshold to me many years ago. He said it happened every time he picked up a beer.

A friend came by and told me Right now, I’m on the edge of self-destruction. Was he strung out? Was he suicidal? Knowing his condition, either situation could lead to lethality. Immediately I thought of that protest song Eve of Destruction. I just sort of hummed it and sang part of it to myself. 1965? Yeah, I looked it up, checked out the lyrics. I had it right.

I asked him, What could the answer be? Answer: To have friends that would help me. I’ve been to 10 rehabs—they don’t work. There’s no support group. I need to fill the emptiness in me. Everybody’s tired of me. Even you are tired of me and you are the only friend I’ve got.

Looking under Eve first I found a group called EVE 6 with a song whose lyrics blew my mind as I thought what my friend had told me. When do we get to the part where I can go home/been hiding inside the jungle gym for way too long/waitin’ for someone to come along and find me/life in an apartment that bums me out/it don’t get better when the lights go out/waitin’ for someone to come along and find me. . .goin’ out at night lookin’ for distractions/sleepin’ through the day there’s no redemption/waitin’ for someone to find you. I’m not sure this person (in the lyrics) wants help. What I do know is that the words get to the point of the condition of an addict: At least I’m breathin’/at least I’m alive/as long as I’m dreamin’/everything’s gonna be alright/I’m alright, I tell myself twice/in the mirror before I can’t go to sleep at night/I need a lullaby I need some time/I need to get a dime bag from my guy.

I also saw lyrics to a 3rd Strike tune called Strung Out. Listen to me Jesus/this disease (?) deceives us/takes us for a flight/then shoots us down. . .I can’t release myself/calm the storm that builds inside/kill off emotions and I’m strung out again/I can’t escape myself. . .a little hit can take away my fears and make me feel a real man/selling all I have to make me whole. . .I’m sick and tired of being sick and (bleep) tired. . .my next binge with the syringe might do me in/take me out. . I’m just a slave headed for the grave anyway. Wow!

I continue listening to my friend. One doesn’t have be a rocket scientist to know when his problem began. You would have to listen to the sadness of his childhood. He missed love and acceptance and lot’s of the other things he so desperately needed. He saw inconsistencies in the adults in his life.

Now, let me ask you What happens in the next generation? How long has this been going on? I am a trained “Parent Trainer” through the Texas State School Board. When we started to have community classes I found out one thing really quickly: Parents don’t need training. No one came. Ask most parents and they will tell you. The biological is all that parenting is to some parents and many of them cannot even spell biology.

Just get them in the world. That’s what parenting is all about and as I recall that was all fun. And, weren’t they neat when they were tiny? Rabbits are much better at it than we are, though. I think mice are too.

Let’s get serious. How many kids will fall into drugs today? How many will complete suicide? I doubt any parents will read this for one of two reasons: 1) It is too much like education; or, 2) It appears to be for kids. How many parents do you know that subscribe to the rule that if you don’t know anything about it, everything's all right. Or, What you don’t know won’t hurt you.

The stuff I’m writing about today KILLS KIDS (& ADULTS) DEAD!!!