Last Saturday I went to see the production of Porgy and Bess in Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre – and most wonderful it is too. If you don’t know the story, I’ve put a brief synopsis in the footnote below. ((Bess is a coke addict and is the lover of the Cock Of The Walk, Crown. They have a strong, violent sexual attraction for each other. Crown kills someone and has to run away from the police. Bess is taken in by the beggar and cripple, Porgy – a kind and gentle man. They fall in love and Bess decides to leave her life of addiction. All goes well for a while. The local drug pusher, Sporting Life, tempts Bess with a wee snort, but Porgy storms on and brushes the white powder from her hand. Then Crown returns gives her cocaine and takes her . He says he will return for her and she is either his or she will die. Bess returns to Porgy extremely ill. When she is a bit recovered, she begs Porgy to not let Crown ‘take her and handle me so’. Needless to say Crown does return and Porgy kills him by creeping up on him and stabbing him. Porgy is arrested by the police but manages to convince them that he did not kill Crown. Whilst he was in custody, Sporting Life returns, convinces Bess that Porgy will be in jail for a long time – or hung. She gives in, snorts a line and runs away with Sporting Life to New York. Porgy returns to find Bess gone. The opera ends with Porgy leaving to go to New York to find his beloved Bess. And me testing out how waterproof my mascara is.)) At the start of the opera, we meet Bess, who strongly addicted to cocaine – and a fine old time of it she is having. She gets rescued from this life by Porgy, and learns to love the simple life and the love of a good man. During the course of the opera, cocaine gets waved under Bess’s nose several times and only once does she manage to resist – with the help of Porgy.
The opera seemed to me to be an extremely strong analogy for addictions on two counts.
The first: so often people give up the foods that are making them fat and lazy – and feel so much better as a result. They lose weight, regain energy and their brain works much better. Result. Then Something Happens and they fall right off the wagon – just like Bess.
When I left Regent’s Park, I walked past coolly delicious ice-cream emporiums, wondrous cake shops and so on. It was a hot Saturday and I was on a mini-holiday. Its just like Sporting Life waving the magic dust under Bess’s nose. What chance did she stand – and what chance do people on a hot Saturday afternoon stand? ‘Go on, take some, you know you’ll feel wonderful afterwards’. And, after all, where these foods are concerned, everyone does eat them. It is the people like me who are odd!
The second: Porgy’s help. If trying to lose weight or improve health, it is a very good idea to be careful who we tell our goals to. Otherwise everyone will be asking ‘how’s it going?’ If we’ve had a bit of a slip up, this apparently caring question can trigger a complete reversal of the will to change. However, if careful in who we tell, those people will hold us accountable to our decision and help us when we fail – not by beating us up, but by acting as a sounding board for us to make a good plan to avoid it happening again. This is the sort of thing I do to help people achieve permanent weight loss. It is no quick fix, admittedly. But workable plans are formed so they can be stuck to; the weight comes off, usually goes back on, then finally comes off – and stays off. Contact me if you are interested.