January 21, 2008
Finish
A fellow listserver writes:
“Dr Phil proclaimed, ‘The way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you have started and have never finished.’
He continued, “So, I looked around my house to see all the things I started and hadn’t finished, and before leaving the house this morning, I finished off a bottle of Merlot, a bottle of Zinfandel, a bottle of Bailey’s Irish Cream, a bottle of Kaluha (sic), a package of Oreos, the remainder of my old Prozac prescription, the rest of the cheesecake, some Doritos, and a box of chocolates.
“You have no idea how good I feel right now.”
I was convulsed and thought probably he was, too. But then it made me think about Canon Quirk, if you don’t know, the Canon P D Quirk, a one-time mentor of mine and, I sometimes think, an all-time friend. It wasn’t the stewardship of getting things finished what would have done it for the Canon, it was the notion of “Inner peace.” If anything would get him going, it was that.
I’ve reported before in this venue how Quirk disdains centering prayer and the so-called inner peace it’s supposed to provide. But I’ve reported not without consequence. Once when I suggested how could an eccentric such as he ever care for anything so balanced and purposeful and — centered, I got, if not hate mail, nonetheless a stern scolding about what was about me did I have in for centering prayer. Nothing, actually, only some seem to make quite a living at it.
I don’t know how Quirk feels about Dr Phil, but I can imagine his saying something like “Dr Feel” and then chortling about it. But my internet correspondent came closer to a Quirkian litany than I ever could. Such a household-remnants shopping list as he counted off also has great meaning for some of us alcoholics, of all people. If anything, the ones I’ve known can’t stand seeing unfinished stimulants just sitting around, lingering. How could anyone just walk away and leave a drink unfinished? It’s not that Quirk is, as they say, and so far as I know, a friend of Bill W’s, but he is one to appreciate not so much balance as order, and I am sure he would admire a person finishing all the things once started.
This disturbed him about me and frequently tested our friendship. He could never understand my excuse that being a Myers-Briggs P except, as I said, in certain matters, makes it next to impossible for me to measure up to his J, our preferences being, as it were, something I always thought rather biblical, like seeing through a glass darkly.
I wonder what Dr Phil might do with that?
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