Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Intervention

Now, normally you can totally trust me with your confessions. I believe in love in action, and keeping confidences is way up there on my concept of honouring my fellow human beings. But what I've got here requires an intervention, and I'd like the advice of a few, close, personal friends who know how to keep a shameful secret along with me and help to bear this burden.

I was approached at church this morning by the associate pastor. He dropped the bomb. Someone he cares about is suffering from an addiction and the guy was humble and vulnerable enough to know when to ask for help.

I came home, holding this info tightly to myself, and decided I had better start by getting properly informed. So I looked at the only place I could possibly start: msn encarta dictionary and thesaurus.

ad·dic·tion [ ə díksh'n ] (plural ad·dic·tions)
noun
Definition:

1. drug dependence: a state of physiological or psychological dependence on a potentially harmful drug or blog address.
2. devotion: great interest in a particular thing to which a lot of time is devoted. Even if it involves a charity.


Wow. I hadn't expected it to fit the pastor's description so entirely perfectly.
I decided to investigate further, and delve into the comprehensive world of wikipedia; the online encycleopedia. After hours of research, here's what I came up with:
addiction (n)
Synonyms: habit, compulsion, dependence, need, obsession, craving, infatuation


The term "addiction" is used in many contexts to describe an obsession, compulsion, or excessive psychological dependence, such as: drug addiction, bags, alcoholism, compulsive overeating, messenger bags, problem gambling, problem bidding, computer addiction, etc.

Addiction is generally associated with increased lurking and commenting tolerance.

Common usage of the term addiction has spread to include psychological dependence. In this context, the term is used in blog addiction and comment abuse problems, but also refers to behaviours that are not generally recognised by the medical community as problems of addiction, such as philanthropy philandering
.
The term addiction is also sometimes applied to compulsions that are not substance-related, such as problem gambling and computer addiction. In these kinds of common usages, the term addiction is used to describe a recurring compulsion by an individual to engage in some specific activity, such as logging onto the darfur blog daily despite harmful consequences to the individual's health, mental state or social life.


I felt like I'd been socked in the stomach. I'd been trusted with the mind numbing news that our very own Svea, wife of the associate, flock-leading, wound-binding, boo-boo kissing pastor has a full-blown addiction. Not just any old addiction. Nope, the full monty- the dreaded bag blog addiction. Advanced stages include gazing into one's monitor whilst breast-feeding a babe through a sling; keeping a handy supply of wipes to de-drool one's keyboard; and most disconcerting of all- the illness is chronic and progressive. The later stages finds one feeding one's offpspring uncooked pinto beans to leave room in the pastor's wife budget for over-priced do-gooder bags.

Now, I'm not telling you this so you go blabbing it to every Tanya, Dianne, and Hillary. I'm only speaking of it because I trust you to keep a secret, and I know that you care for Svea's and her family's welfare as much as I do. We all have their best interests in mind.

And I think this week is Pastor's-Wife-With-Addictions Appreciation Week.
So, if you care at all about Svea, you should get her a bag or something. Or fund her for a laptop or something.

Just because we care, of course.

9 comments:

Roo said...

haha! oh dear.
i think we'll need to start a support group for a WHOLE bunch of us. if truth be told you have a large following of those who are painfully "bag-addicted".
:)

Anonymous said...

Yes, I think we all have an addiction! Love the writing - wait everyday for it!!!!!! By the way ordered "The Glass Castle" from the library......my mother-in-law read "The Shack" and she loved it....sounded confusing to me, but she said she read the journey part twice......MK

bygeorge! said...

personally uh, speaking... 'tis not a bag blog addiction, but a carrot for the less pleasant tasks in my day. If I complete X amount of documenting, I allow myself the pleasure of a peak at progress. It is a mini vacation to visit the art gallery of Joyce's work, and to ~lurk over the warm banter of support and encouragement. It is a form of respite from unpleasant. so how could that have the negative intonations of "addiction"???
I say thanks!

Judy said...

Hey.

Finally.

Something I am NOT addicted too.

I would be, but when I see one of your lovely bags, I turn my face away and yell "NO!" in my loudest voice.

So far, it's working.

Well, that, and not having any money. That helps.

joyce said...

wooot, woot, Lory!
Art gallery. *sigh*
I did make it to a funky book launch downtown 'peg tonight though. Schmoozing with for-real writers.

And isn't it only an addiction if it takes over your life? So, then, Am I the addicted one?!

MK- I've got a few blog ideas floating around in the grey areas as we speak... Time, oh, elusive Time... Where art thou?

Judy- get one of those webcams. I want to hear you scream NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHH.......

Anonymous said...

Going into detox waiting for Thursday's bag to appear...from an addicted lurker

joyce said...

mwah, ha, ha, ha...
Yeah, I am working on it. A little behind this morning, because LIFE got in the way...

tanya said...

Hi, My name is Tanya and I'm a blog addict...

svea said...

Oh my gosh, My palms are sweating my fingers are raw from running fabric through my hands imagining that it is one of your bags on my shoulder....... I was going through withdrawls because David took my only source of Internet connectivity to church with him today of all days, so I was unable to check on your bags until tonight at 11:41pm whenI snatched the laptop from him and beg for a small peek at your site, and what did I find a shrine to my addiction....Wow I must say that having a blog entry all about oneself is almost as addicting as looking at your darfur bag site, almost, but not quite, so now I must return to your bag site to drool some more and see who won the pretty apple bag, that wanted to come home with me I am sure .. I am totally willing to start a support group for your groupies, or a darfur bag babybagsitting service......