Temporary addictions

Wheaties:  As a kid growing up, I just had to have Wheaties for breakfast.  Maybe even lunch.  Certainly for “bed lunch” just before 9:00 PM curfew.  How else could I grow up to be strong and healthy and become  a famous baseball player if I didn’t eat my Wheaties? I still have the framed baseball stars pictured on the metal photos glued to the side of boxes of Wheaties.  Eating Wheaties was necessary.  It said so right there on the box.

Cinnamon:

Rolls, cakes, pancakes, rolly pollys, cookies, you name it, I had to have it. With coffee, without coffee, morning noon or night.  Cinnamon was just too good to ever pass up. What is a rolly polly, you may be wondering.  Its, the left over dough from mothers other baking, sprinkled with cinnamon and rolled up, sliced into bite sized pieces and tucked into the oven along side the main pans.  They often took the hunger pangs away when bursting into the house after school.  Mom never knew she cause this life long addiction. I’m being treated to this day in controlling this delightful addiction.

After my introduction to the game of Chess I soon was unable to think of anything else. The new American Chess Champion was Bobby Fischer in 1958.  He was the same age as me.  I had to see if I could equal his accomplishments.  Books, glorious books about the game were bought and read furiously.  Every spare moment spent playing or reading the accumulated library.  I was getting better and better.  Beat three experts in one weekend.  But then the wall of my other life was stood strong and put a stop to this silly pursuit to nothing but a game.  A game for God’s sake.  Family, job, law school put the fire out.  Now I play the game again, just for fun.

So my addictions were all temporary.  Stopped by common sense, which is in reality not all that common.  If one lets one’s pleasures dictate and overwhelm the better meanings of life the addiction is a curse.  If not, it’s really just a pleasure.

Wheaties, cinnamon, chess.  Like life itself, all just temporary.