LIFE SKILLS I: NARCOTICS AND NATURE

My job is to set you on the right path in life, class. When you leave this classroom and venture out into the big, bad world, you need to be prepared for what awaits you. And when you get to the big, bad world, there will be plenty of big, bad people trying to take advantage of the naïve.

You will be offered and promised things that sound tempting, but you must practice caution, especially with those of whom you know very little. A former student of mine who did not heed my advice fell into bad habits and bad company, and his new “friends” encouraged him to partake in the consumption of many narcotics.

My ex-student remains an addict to this day. His gateway? Khat.

Drugs are excellent. Scratch that. Let me rephrase. The medical and pharmaceutical advances we have made are amazing. There are many smart people creating cures and remedies to ailments we barely even know exist. Drugs help people control illness. Drugs help people extinguish pain.

Likewise, nature is astounding. I don’t even need to begin to explain just how much wonder fills the earth in every nook and crevice. Just take a drive into the countryside and look around. There is so much to see. Nature is freeing. Nature is healing.

But that is just one context.

In the context of the real world, there are people who want to push drugs at you for nothing but their own gain. For a profit they will strip away your humanity and leave your exposed skeletal soul pulsing and twitching. For greed they will take your very essence and destroy it, leaving you a husk of a human.

And nature can play just as big a part. Nature is kind but nature is also cruel and unyielding. Nature can cause ailments and addictions too. Look at the prevalent drugs in our society today: Cannabis, Heroin, Cocaine, Ecstasy. All of them come from nature. From plants.

You may remember class, I mentioned my students gateway was Khat. Khat is very relevant, especially now. In OSW this week, the drug-pusher and mother nature join forces to try and ruin lives once more. They intend to be like Heroin and leave me broken and dependant, unable to think for myself. Try and try as they might to suppress me, all they end up being is Khat.

Khat is a stimulant plant. And just like that plant the more they try to overdose me, the more aware and awake I become. Khat suppresses the appetite. And just like with the plant, they will lose their appetite and desire once they encounter me in that ring. Khat disrupts sleeping patterns. And just like with the plant, Gaia and Washington will be tossing and turning, unable to rest their eyes for even a moment. For they know what is coming. They know that they need to be taught a lesson.

Their assignment is simple this week – they must lose. And I’ll make sure they pass with distinction.