In a simple way, power is the ability to make someone do what they wouldn't ordinarily do. For example, A state trooper has the power to make you stop your car. You agree to top speeding and pull over because you know that they could use force to do it. Your mother uses another sort of power, when she sighs. Unlike the police, you know that she canąt use force on you. However, she has other, far more powerful tools. You look at her and feel the guilt in side and, even as you don't want to, you go upstairs and change. In both cases, you donąt really want to slow down or change clothes, but you know that your life will be a lot easier if you do. You bend to their power.
Love works at a far more subtle level. When you are in love, you are dying to do the things that you would't ordinarily do. You never would be caught dead holding her purse in the middle of the Hyannis Mall, but there you are. And you volunteered to hold it for her while she is inside shopping. She is the pusher and you are the junkie. You become addicted to her presence and her voice. When she calls, you leap to her voice as a dog jumps to hear the car pull into the yard. With her, you are in Nirvana, without Samsara.
Winston found himself addicted to Julia. She walks by him in the hall, passes a note and his normal days have ended. The gray days of April give way to the excitement of May as Julia loves and bedevils him. Suddenly he finds himself visiting her in the country, buying her presents, even renting a room for her. All of these are dangerous, life threatening actions that he would have never risked had he not become addicted to her.
Julia becomes addicted to Winston as well. She buys him chocolates, dresses up for him, and takes all the same, dangerous risks. In the best relationships, she gets addicted as well. She looks to you as her own pusher and the two of you spend the first few weeks and months, testing the limits of addiction. Then, you learn the limits you need to go on with your life painlessly. You bring your career and your friends back into the fold. You try to become a functioning addict.
Unfortunately, the worst relationships come from only one person getting addicted. Poor Tim is looking for someway to get more of the good stuff, but it wonąt come to him. He hunts, begs, and ransacks her for the smack. Brenda, no matter how pure her soul nor how good her intentions can never understand why this nice guy, Ted, behaves like a crazed dog. He suffers from True Betrayal and only time, chocolate, and the whiff of a smell of burning motor oil can heal him.
Back to the Beach
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