Bit Part

I had a bit part in saving a man's life a while back. When he came to me, the work was done. All I had to do was to encourage, be patient, and remind him of what he already knew.

The man had been a drunk. He had the big dreams but little real accomplishment that is so common in drunks. Mid thirties with no wife,no kids,no career,no money,no home and no future. He did, however,have a most unusual history. As a boy, he was badly injured in an accident. Lying in the emergency room, he was injected with the wrong medication. He nearly died. His injury required surgery and kept him immobile for ten weeks. Fortunately he was an active kid and he made a good recovery. In college, he nearly drowned at the beach when was caught in an ocean undertow. And a few years later, he had a third near death experience when he had a bad reaction to an antihistamine.

I asked him what these experiences were like. The first he said was all black and quiet. The last was noisy and full of bright red lights.

He started drinking young. It was a way to quell the nightmares. Asleep he would experience over and over the terror of those near death experiences. Approaching bedtime would crank up his anxiety level so high that he would have to get drunk. If he could resist drinking, he would have the dreams that would help explain what was behind it all.

Today he is a new man. The best I can explain it is that he has lived his life on the entrance ramp unable to get up enough speed to get on the expressway. He's getting up to speed now and very soon he'll be on the way. Nothing can hold him back now.