"What are you doing there?" he said to the tippler, whom he found settled down in silence before a collection of empty bottles and also a collection of full bottles.
"I am drinking," replied the tippler, with a lugubrious air.
"Why are you drinking?" demanded the little prince.
"So that I may forget," replied the tippler.
"Forget what?" inquired the little prince, who already was sorry for him.
"Forget that I am ashamed," the tippler confessed, hanging his head.
"Ashamed of what?" insisted the little prince, who wanted to help him.
"Ashamed of drinking!" The tippler brought his speech to an end, and shut himself up in an impregnable silence.
And the little prince went away, puzzled.
"The grown-ups are certainly very, very odd," he said to himself, as he continued on his journey.
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When I very first read this book, this simple, short, sad chapter became a favorite because in a way I saw myself sitting in that chair behind that table - I was the tippler. Now, I have never had a drink...in the alcoholic sense, but at the time I first read this passage I was dealing with some health issues that I am still trying to manage today. I have a health condition that restricts my diet somewhat, and some items that are 'forbidden' includes candies, cakes, cookies, and chocolates. Anything with sugar basically. I would do great for a while, be very disciplined, but I have had my times when I would pull up a chair and have a cookie, then two then three and four - and even knowing that it would make me sick I would go on eating! When the cookies were gone I would find something else sweet and sugary to consume my numbed-thoughts in. I would eat more of what was making me miserable and since I was feeling so miserable I would eat more - and more! Kind of stupid, huh? Okay - way stupid - ha.
Like the little prince, I take pity on the tippler and sincerely wish that I could help him find his way out of this trap that he has created for himself, just as I found a way out of my trap. It has taken time and tears, prayer and patience; going up and down with some bumps along the way, and I still don't get it perfectly right all the time. But I feel like I have stood up and left the table, I have gotten up out of the chair and I ...and I hope that tippler can walk away someday - sometime soon.
I have been thinking a great deal lately about the unrelenting consequences that come because of our choices and our actions. If they weren't unrelenting we, like spoiled children whose parents don't follow through on discipline, would never learn the lessons of life we came here to learn. I am seeing this first hand at this moment as I have a dear, dear friend who is now suffering severely for choices she has continued to make over years that are now coming down upon her. It's one of the saddest situations I have experienced in my life. And though there are people around her who love her and who have tried to shield her from the consequences of her choices, the day has finally come when we can no longer do so. In the end, she is the only one...the only one who can make the decision to change the course of her life. Others can help but they can't make that decision for her.
ReplyDeleteSometimes we avoid doing the hard work of becoming responsible for our own choices because we want to have our cake and eat it too. We continue to make our unhealthy choices and expect our loved ones and others to pick up the pieces for us. But life operates within a framework of laws. And that cause and effect is constant. Justice has her day and if we build the house of cards on the sandy foundation the time will come when it will collapse.
If this was all there was life indeed would be discouraging. Mercy cannot rob justice but mercy can give us the strength to learn from justice. The atonement of Christ offers us repentance, grace, sustainence, the strength and ability to change our ways and finally the ability to make different choices, to change the old ways, to become the new man and to cast off the old. As we accept that we and we alone are responsible for our actions then we can begin to create new consequences in our lives which can gradually temper the wake of our past choices. As we leave this school of life where the atonement of Christ can be a buffer between us and our actions if we so choose, we will have learned from our own experience, we will understand fully opposition in all things, good and evil, cause and effect and then at some point in eternity there will flow from our all of our choices consequences of joy, peace, love and goodness.
-M-