February 19, 2004

Typical conversation between Locke and Me

Talking to RB today, and it's one of those talks, so I'm filling him in on the news, the story about the guy who ate coins--this mental illness has a name, I forgot what, the story's out there, he never reads the news, and I explain about this illness that is quite debilitating considering that the crux is the illness is a compulsion to eat things that aren't edible.

In this case coins. Ten year's worth of coins. 12 pounds worth of coins.

So, I say, they operate on the man, who had been through the coin eating ordeal before, and he dies 12 days later, and I launch into a jag about how I could easily slip over the edge into a compulsion like that, at least I was thinking so while I was reading it, here, alone, avoiding MicrosoftWord, and after all, what keeps me from eating a penny right now. It sounds interesting. How many would it take to feel full? If you have one or two dimes, what would be the point of stopping there? And what an ingenious way to fill that emptiness inside.

Anyway I'm done telling the story about the man who ate pennies and quarters, probably nickels, and I assume dimes, and RB verifies that yes, this is an illness that's been around for a long time, and some people eat knives, and he tells me how there was once a guy who ate an entire bicycle. I say, a whole bicycle? I think about it.

I think about it some more.

Man. A whole bicycle? I say, what's that gotta feel like--passing shrapnel, right?

No shit he says.

snort-snort-laugh-laugh.

And so I tell him how I've had this annoying headache today, not like a regular headache, more of a headitch, where I feel that if I could just reach in with a fork between my brain and the inside of my skull and itch, it would be gone. It's an itch of some kind, but an inside itch beneath my skull that hurts.

So he tells me about the third eye thing and Trepanation, and how some people make holes in their heads with drills to relieve pressure while achieving genuine fulfillment and spiritual enlightenment, thereby curing their individual human conditions, and how it's an ancient practice, one that dates back to ancient times, one that I should probably avoid and not spend time looking into online.....

which is precisely what I do, look into it online that is, not drill my head, yet, and I find trepan.com which demonstrates that trepanation is alive and well and boring holes in heads worldwide, and why not?

I love this place.