Manacea

Once upon a time, I briefly "dated" a guy whose real identity will be concealed. Let's call him Ted. It became readily apparent to me that Ted was a very dependent person. Admittedly, I am an independent person by nature and nuture, but I do feel that a healthy amount of dependence is a positive thing. His approach, I fear, was more like static cling. I realized that this guy was unknowingly in search of a kind of panacea. A panacea was highly sought after by Medieval alchemists as a cure for all ills. A serum for long life, in a sense. Being the crafty wordsmith I claim to be, I made the connection that Ted was in search of his own kind of panacea. It was a manacea. So that was the back story of this piece.

Man-a-ce-a (man-UH-SEE-uh). n. 1. Cure for all sexual ills. 2. Warm body.

Cuddling in your bed,
he was your climate control,
your terry cloth mother,
the logical conclusion to your emotional wreck.
Like the safety of an airbag
inside a crushed-in hull,
collapsing upon you with
the feeling of touch.


Fortunately, I didn't take it the wrong way.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

ah... the terry-cloth mother... flashes of psych 101 yet again dance through my head... :)

Army said...

Allison, you will do well on the final exam, fo sho! If things look to be fooked, offer the professor some Credence, man.

Unknown said...

And that is definitely bound to be a question on the final- which mother did the little monkeys go to in a time of distress- the "wire mother" or the "terry cloth" mother... For the record, I felt really bad for those little monkeys... lol

I also saw in your profile Reciprocal Determinism... If there is one thing I can't stand about psych is is the really bad 50-cent terminology that mostly serves to confuse people... And don't even get me started on trying to explain to people the difference between negative reinforcement and punishment: ARGH!!! But I'm sure you can relate... :)

Army said...

Allison, first off, you better not be dissing my man, Albert Bandura! He's the man!

Secondly, I'll send you an email that will clear up that whole negative reinforcement vs. punishment biznass once n frall!

Jillian Grady said...

you're funny