Christmas Movies in Unusual Places

"The Green Mile" may not seem like much of a Christmas movie but it's now one of my choices, along with "Love Actually" and "Scrooged" which are in a tie for No. 1.


I'm tired, boss.  Tired of being on the road, lonely as a sparrow in the rain.

I'm tired of never having a buddy to be with, to tell me where we's going to, coming from or why.  

Mostly, I'm tired of people being ugly to each other.

I'm tired of all the pain I feel and hear in the world every day.  There's too much of it.

It's like pieces of glass in my head, all the time.

Can you understand?

- John Coffey as he gives Paul Edgecomb permission to execute him in "The Green Mile"

I've done some things in my life I am not proud of but this is the first time I ever thought there was real danger of Hell.

- Paul Edgecomb

(Ed:  thanks for that seasonal treat!)

Maybe it's not a Christmas movie for the Santa Claus crowd but, here at the Rockhouse, we see a direct parallel between this execution and another in which permission was also granted in a different way.  We have zero doubt this parallel was King's intention.  "The Green Mile" may well be Steven King's masterpiece and it showed exceptional, hugely-insightful portrayals by everyone in it.

Tears of we are not worthy reverence will almost certainly come and that seems appropriate to the season as well.  We don't hold much reverence for much of anything but the supreme goodness of John Coffey radiates from him and we damn sure are not worthy.

Note:  Michael Clarke Duncan played John Coffey and he only lived to be fifty-four.  Poignance in seeing him doesn't reach to the feelings coming from it.

There was an article, somewhat rambly, on the blog yesterday about psychedelics / religion and watching the movie with a primo buzz makes just that connection.  Once you learn the stoner world, it's not a difficult thing to achieve; you don't have to get wasted and it's not desirable because then your mind is not so keen.

The clarity of perception of Ideal Beauty in John Coffey may not be possible without the psychedelic but there is no way we can say that because there is no way we can possibly know.  After you learn of the psychedelic world, there is no way to consider things in any other context.  An impossible example might be to strip perception of the primary colors and the result might even look cool but why should you deprive yourself of the entire experience.  That's not how reefer works but it's loosely analogous.

Note:  reefer is included in the class of psychedelics because modern reefer warrants it.  Psilocybin is up one step to vivid visual psychedelics and LSD is up one more to vivid visuals and exceptional insights.

In some ways this is a sales pitch for reefer and mostly because we see many people who could benefit from it because they bounce around on pogo sticks with no visible evidence they hold onto them, if you (cough) take our meaning.

Prescription:  one tok and one tok only of high-grade US-grown reefer.  Marijuana is a bronchodilator so the smoke may not be as destructive is it seems.  The most important part is one tok only.  If you are not experienced, one is all you will need.

Maybe your judgment is all of this comes to a pipe dream and your religious experience would be the same regardless of whether any type of psychedelic is involved.  It's a fair enough call to make but there's no way to be sure from the virgin side whether psychedelics really do anything in that context.  Conversely, there's no way for the stoner to be sure the perception is more than an illusion.

My evidence is only subjective testimony since there was never any experience of this nature when I was not high.  With the effects of various psychedelics, it's not so much a transport exists but rather, just as Aldous Huxley said, there are doors of perception.

The Disclaimer:

Advocacy for psychedelics in no way indicative of support for mind-killing drugs and people who take them or seek them know what they are.  There are people who believe they are quieting demons in the head or things of that nature and these ones are not interested in psychedelics.  With these ones, deliberate self-destruction is the only plan.

There is another class in the pre-thirty crowd which just does not care.  I'll never live past thirty anyway so I just don't give a fuck.  Those ones will take just about any kind of drug and they're looking for obliteration as well but they want lots of fireworks first.

We can tell those people it will kill them but they don't care.  It's their intention already.  To have any chance of helping those ones you need to come at it another way ... plus ... shutting down the pill mills, etc where they get the stuff.