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| Wreck of the Gratitude by Frank Hurley |
Very special thanks to Alexander (my lover during my freshman year in college, who broke up with me long before I was through with him, and who afterwards came wandering back, especially in the middle of the night, whenever he wanted to get laid, and who I could never bring myself to turn down because I still loved him), Jenny (Alexander’s lover after me, whom he also broke up with, and who then started pursuing me—I wonder what he told her—eventually winning my friendship—well, she was intelligent, strong-minded and passionate—and who finally said late one night after a drunken party, “it means so much to me that I love you more than I love him”), Michael (Alexander’s older brother, who said nothing when Jenny and I paid a surprise visit to Alexander that summer, and the three of us ended up in bed together, and the next morning I was so elated—my heart flew up to the summer sun, blazing intensely in the vivid blue sky), Tom (Alexander’s friend, who Alexander brought over to the house I shared with Jenny that fall, and who tried to seduce me—no, I said, I really don’t want to, and I had to push him off—what had Alexander told him—while Jenny and Alexander were in the other room, with Jenny crying and crying, until finally Alexander said that he was leaving and that this was Tom’s only chance to get a ride home—no, I assured him, I really don’t want to—and Alexander took Jenny with him, too, just to sleep, he explained, because she couldn’t stop crying—and Jenny spent the rest of that fall pining after Alexander, as he went through a series of one-night-stands and I had an affair with a boy none of them knew, until she suddenly dropped out of school, moved out of our house without giving me any notice, and left by herself on a trip to Europe), and Jim (the boy I knew who hanged himself in the maze across from the student health center—I didn’t have a relationship with him, but somehow his suicide, especially by hanging, around the same time my relationship with Jenny was falling apart, added to my feeling of complete and utter disillusionment) because I’m sure that all these people had something to do with who I am now and therefore helped make this book possible, although I’m not sure exactly how.
by Nina Zolotow
There are several studies that affirm this theory. One of them, carried out by the American Lung Society, showed that meditation is even more effective than smoking cessation programs and, in addition, the duration of its effect is even greater than that of traditional treatments. This may be because meditation helps to unlink the desire for the act of smoking.
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