As an addict I for years lived with illusions that put me in danger. For example, I used to think I could successfully get high. I thought I drove better when I was drunk. Sometimes I thought I was tough. There were dangerous illusions that brought me jail, injuries, divorces and other calamities. And these left when I embraced recovery.
But there are positive illusions that aren't bad. Many are from childhood and fall by the wayside as we mature.
For example, I once believed in Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and the Easter Bunny. But eventually my school friends informed me that Santa was too fat for our chimney. That bunnies don’t have hands so how could I be stupid enough to believe they could boil and dye eggs? And why would a fairy care about a lost molar?
And I was okay with letting these illusions go because I now was in the inner circle of those who were really in the know. I was with the in-crowd..
But an illusion that I’m sorry I lost – after reading a recent article in Reader’s Digest - was my belief that dolphins smile.
All my life I've seen their happy faces in videos and movies and it cheered me up. And when I’m on vacation in Mexico it’s common to see them frolicking offshore seemingly without a care in the world. How happy and blissful they seem.
Then comes the Reader’s Digest article about the smile being really just the shape of their heads – not an expression of their emotions.
Now I’ll never look at dolphins quite the same, realizing they might be depressed, or angry, or fearful behind that happy exterior.
