To FEED THE RAT is a prevention, a cure. A remedy for being sick and tired of being sick and tired, of anxiety, of confusion. An avoidance technique to prevent each superficial day after superficial day leading to the inevitable thinness of meaning in the endless flatland. A rejection of nebulous limits, demands, being a slave to the clock and a having a life lived in bursts.
Some people are different; only one percent of the world's population will relate to this. These are unique individuals who have their own stimulants. They are detatched from the rest of society, the normal, mundane, dull everyday society. They are unable to endure an existence that is overwhelmingly safe, predictable and tedious. It is a way of life they are compelled to reject.
If it was the case that FEED THE RAT was a person, what would they be like? Probably something like this:
- Commited to mastery of their pursuit
- Measured and realistic, not fake
- Not interested in the trivia of life
- Will not readily compromise goals
- Is not a follower or swayed by trends
- Is calm and exudes calm
- Is understated and knows themselves
- Knows the risks and takes measures to reduce them
- Is not willing to ruin the game by dying because that would be stupid and they abhor stupidity
This Rat stimulation stuff is hardly new, even cavemen hunted Mastodons when they could have grown crops, they knew even then that if they didn't feed the rat inside, the rat would devour them.
The Rat, when fed, is good. If not, it's evil …and it's always in you.
Check out the lifestyle comparison...
Feed The Rat is derived from a book written by the English author Al Alvarez. Written in the early 1980's and called "Feeding The Rat" the book is all about the life and times of the English climber Mo Anthoine.
Really recommended for the climbing story that it largely is, but also, especially towards the back of the book, Mo writes of what the Rat is to him; a way of comparing who he thinks he is, with who he really is when under pressure in the hills... A great and "important" read. |
