Wire 010: Hangover Cure
I woke up without a hangover at 8am, after four hours of sleep. A few years ago, I used to think, with cosmic import, that I rose so early after drinking binges because I had gotten in touch with some deeper feeling the night before, via the mental state brought on by the lowered inhibitions of the alcohol. I was sure that booze opened my emotions in some magical way, and consequently diminished my need for sleep, because the sheer force of my booze-revealed personality brought me around in the morning. This was related to my superstition that pure souls, like Gandhi, only needed to rest three or four hours a day. Gandhi also started every day with a piping glass of urine, but I never tried that.
I now understand it’s the sugars from the alcohol slamming into my system which shake my pillow, and that my spiritual-psycho-soul explanation was delusional, wacky bullshit.
I use this private parable to remind myself that this year’s heartfelt, well-rendered, sincere understanding is next year’s idiot shame, and that the things I say now, I should always preface by speaking, “I may be totally wrong, but...”
The greatest majority of historical evidence says that I am.