Alcohol doesn't console, it doesn't fill up anyone's psychological gaps, all it replaces is the lack of God.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that alcohol is merely a substitution for a deeper spiritual void rather than a true comfort.
Marguerite Duras's quote reflects on the profound emptiness that alcohol cannot truly fill, positing that while people may turn to substances for consolation, such actions ultimately signify a lack of spiritual fulfillment or connection with a higher power. It highlights the human tendency to seek temporary relief from pain through inadequate means rather than addressing the deeper issues that stem from a disconnection from something greater, such as faith or spiritual belief.
In practice
This quote can be used during a discussion on addiction at a support group.
Alcohol doesn't console, it doesn't fill up anyone's psychological gaps, all it replaces is the lack of God. It doesn't comfort man. On the contrary, it encourages him in his folly, it transports him to the supreme regions where he is master of his own destiny.
What she said was always strange. It had happened long ago. It seemed insignificant. And yet it was something you remembered forever. The words as well as the story. The voice as much as the words.
I'm still there, watching those possessed children, as far away from the mystery now as I was then. I've never written, though I thought I wrote, never loved, though I thought I loved, never done anything but wait outside the closed door.
Perhaps someone will have seen mine, the one Iβm waiting for, just as I saw him, in a ditch when his hands were making their last appeal and his eyes no longer could see. Someone who will never know what that man was to me; someone whose name Iβll never know.
Stormy skies, says Ernesto. He grieved for them. Summer rain. Childhood.
A prolonged silence ensues. The reason for the silence is our growing interest one for the other. No one is aware of it, no one yet; no one? am I quite sure?
Holy places are dark places. It is life and strength, not knowledge and words, that we get in them. Holy wisdom is not clear and thin like water, but thick and dark like blood.
But what can a decent man speak of with most pleasure? Answer: Of himself. Well, so I will talk about myself.
Personal purity isnβt really the issue. Not supporting animal abuse β and persuading others not to support it β is.
All the Dachaus must remain standing.
The body sleeps, the heart sleeps, the mind sleeps - but you remain alert because you are nothing else but alertness. Everything else is a false identification. Awareness is your nature. The body is your abode. The mind is your computer. Awareness;s you, is your very being.
Under the continual contact with the pebbles my feet have become hardened and used to the ground. My body, almost constantly nude, no longer suffers from the sun. Civilization is falling from me little by little. I am beginning to think simply, to feel only very little hatred for my neighbor - rather, to love him.
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