Sunday, March 6, 2011

Like Simile As Metaphor

There was one other time in my life when drugs, well mostly one drug, ruled my life. That was the acid era. You'd smoke a joint to raise your head, but pot was just the amplifier. LSD changed my life, nearly ended any hope of sanity and then made me get sane.

Acid was cheap, a whole night's entertainment for 2 bucks. It made everything beautiful, wonderous, hilarious and genius. Among the artsy crowd, it brought out fresh insights and different views that inspired us. I made some remarkable art and wrote poems and songs during that time. Played music with people. Acid was a requirement for any big concert and for most music events. When I was tripping I was hyper-alive, every sense magnified, including humor.

The day after tripping a lot (I took one hit a day, but to trip I took at least 3; my tolerance was high after 2 years) I'd look at what I'd made and examine the experience. It was all so good, life. Tripping made the mundane parts of life- work, sleep, food, where you lived- less important and very funny. Somehow it made my college work better. I actually understood Probability & Stats by tripping and took the final without book or calculator without a problem. And there was a lot of speed in blotter in the late 70s. Sometimes the speed would keep you up for 2 days and you'd have to find valium to bring you down. But it was all good.

One time I asked my dealer why he didn't trip anymore and he said "too many bad trips". I'd never had a bad trip. But I did, on 5 drops of liquid on a sugar cube. And that was the end of acid for me. I lived in the middle of nowhere for 2 years and thought a lot. Got my shit together.

I've been working on this post because I know there's something key common to what happened then and what's just happened. But I can't find it. It's a needle in a LES squat.

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