Source Text

I interviewed a woman who is terminally ill. So I tried to delicately ask, “What is it like to wake up every morning and know that you are dying?” “Well,” she responded, “what is it like to wake up every morning and pretend that you are not?” ~ Marc Chernoff

a. A desire for self-destruction, often accompanied by feelings of depression, hopelessness, and self-reproach.

The non-hero’s journey

Stabbed in the back The betrayal is astonishing. The jaw drops. Are you kidding me? I have to take twice as much of this stuff to feel anything close to what I felt when I first took it?

Why? Because of a little liquid pleasure I borrowed from the future? What’s wrong with hitting the future up? Especially when the present is such a confusing mess?

Time to drink and ponder. Maybe I’ll even quit drinking after this. That would be a huge life-changing decision! Not the kind of decision I would ever make without first taking a drink.

That’s sad. Sad on many levels. It is sad that I’m even thinking about this. How do I know what to think anymore? One drink is too many (for me) but a hundred is not enough.

Regretting a typical scene from my life

I feel like I’m under a volcano right now. I need a drink or something. A fix. I need to make something happen, to feel good again. So I talk my friend into going into an early morning bar at the end of a dirt road in Juarez.

Yet it’s still an insight for me: Debt and addiction go hand in hand. They are siblings. Twins. Because in each case I borrow from the future.

AI Summary

Death Wish by Steve Chandler presents key insights from the contemplative tradition. The 10 passages above capture the essential teachings.

Core Themes:

• [To be expanded]

Key Passages: Highlights 1, 3, and 10 are particularly representative.

This entry was generated from Readwise highlights. Expand with additional context as appropriate.