The Chill

When I was younger (before I could buy booze or smokes without being hassled by The Man), I did some pretty stupid things. Frequently. These stupid things sometimes caught the attention of people around me, sometimes strangers and older people. And to be even more specific, the attention of an older black woman who gave me a rather cryptic but very wise bit of advice with just one sentence:

When the thrill is gone, the chill is on.

I recognized the first part from a BB King song. You know the one. But the rest seemed like pure poetry. And magic.

It seemed like poetry and magic because it took me a while to figure out what she might have meant but when I thought I did, it seemed to apply to everything I could think of. From what I can remember, she said the phrase in the same way one would deliver a cautionary tale in reference to drug and general substance abuse. It's kind of an odd thing to infer about a 16 year old but not that odd given the fact that it's the 21st century. Not exactly a century known for being prudish and entirely restrained.

Still, the phrase carries a greater meaning than simply just being a very crafty way of saying "don't do drugs" or "don't poison your body." It serves as a cautionary tale that everything will wither and die or, at the very least falter, stumble, and possibly crash at some point.

Whether this means the end is a completely different matter altogether because unless you're living in the ice age, the chill isn't deadly. And if you are living in the ice age, I would love to know how it is you're accessing the internet and communicating with / receiving information from the 21st century.

The chill could just be painful (or just unpleasant) but not necessarily the end of whatever it is the thrill was a part of.

But that's the beauty of the phrase. It fucks with your head. I know it did a number on my head at first and when I thought about it afterwards. Trying to find the answer to what it could mean consumed my thoughts and attention. And if I may be honest, the exact meaning will forever elude me as I can only take guesses and draw a different meaning each time I revisit this phrase.

Thinking about the seasons is a good examples. The thrill is spring and summer. When they end, autumn and winter set in. The chill.

Or maybe she just came up with something on the spot to fuck with my head in order to get me thinking and maybe make better life choices.

I think it worked.