Friend of the Devil Is A Friend of Mine
“Ran into the Devil babe, he loaned me twenty bills/spent the night in Utah in a cave up in the hills” – Grateful Dead
As the LOL (lovely old lady) approaches the Guinness Book of World Records for most continuous moments (waking and sleeping) of being angry (nine days and counting) I started thinking. (I also am trying to avoid the LOL but between work and lack of surf it’s easier said then done.) Specifically, I began wondering why people spend so much time being angry (other than the LOL to whom it appears oxygen is a sufficient irritant.)
Long before Madison Avenue God knew the importance of good pub. (He or she is God after all.) That is if you live a godly life, good things (or a t a minimum not a lot of bad things will happen to you.) This has lead many to say, “God is good, or God is great.” The problem with that is we all have a dark side. Our degrees of impulse control are all different. However, we all at some point give into these baser desires. Be it a smoke, a toke, an extra slice of chocolate cake, a selfish or hurtful act the options are both many and varied. Sin we all do it.
Sooner or later these decisions have consequences. The Devil’s favorite tool is adversity. That is the most likely result in response ego your ungodly decision is the positioning of a metaphorical hurdle in your life. Think about it: smoking poses health risks, drinking creates hangovers, buying a bigger house encourages people to visit. The almost universal response to adversity is frustration and anger. This being ironic because we ourselves are the source of the frustration. Why should you get angry at something that is a direct result of your decision?
The best of us learn not to create the adversity in the first place (I know none of these people). Some of us learn to focus on the solution and not the problem (I’m working on this). Many learn to live with adversity, (“I tell my demons to do your best to destroy me/I’ve been to hell and back so many times you’ve begun to bore me”). The remaining people, like the LOL just stay angry.
Q: ”I’m getting up and going surfing, would you like to come to the beach with me?
A: ”You never get up before 8, you are never up before me, you have never gotten up, ever.”
I did point out that I must get up at some point since I both work and surf. This did not get an answer to the beach question and only induced a string of profanities unfit to publish here.
Why do I in the form of the LOL encounter so much adversity? Through addiction I spent twenty plus years as the Devil’s right hand man. I earned it. The LOL’s charming personality is the consequence of my actions.
“I ran down to the levee but the Devil got me there/took my twenty dollar bill and vanished in the air/said I’m running but I’ll take my time/a friend of the devil is a friend of mine.”
KOKO
