Monday, January 12, 2009


STRATOSPHERIC
UNREALITY
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Jim called and said that he'd finally gotten a group together and that he'd really like for me to join it. I felt flattered. So I went.

When I arrived, he made all 5 of us stand together between 2 rooms, and told us to choose which room we'd like to use. Then he just stood there, and everybody else just stood there, so I walked into one of the rooms and sat down.
Then everybody followed me.
Then Jim "started" the group.
Then another person arrived.
Then he "started" it again,
and we all watched in silence, while he gave each one of us a piece of paper and a pen. But because he never told us what to do with those 2 items, we all just sat there, doing nothing.
Then he played a New-Age-kind-of-CD
and we all listened in silence.
Then he got up and shut it off.
Then, one of the people there announced that SHE wanted to run the group, and Jim said she could, and then she wrote something on that piece of paper he'd given her, and started to cry.
Everybody kinda just sat there, watching her,
while Jim didn't say a word.
Then, the woman who had started to cry, began to sob really loud, and I suddenly remembered a character called "The Depressed Person" from one of David Foster Wallace's short stories, and knew that the sob-woman had played this exact same scene many times before she came to this group, and that it was her way to control it.

After that, each time Jim again started to lead the group, someone else began to run it FOR him, while the sob-woman just continued to cry.

I was mentally planning my exit, and before I could begin to suffer, I gathered my stuff, whispered an apology and a fake explanation into Jim's ear, got up, walked out, went home, made the best pancake ever, and watched
3 Weddings and a Funeral"
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