Oral professions

"...Hal in a weird and deeper internal way almost somehow admires and envies the fact that Schacht's stoically committed himself to the oral professions and stopped dreaming of getting to the Show..."

Hmm. Is that what happened to me? Once so competitive as a player and a coach and now so happy to eternally drink wine, smoke weed/cigars, eat fine food... and go down on my wife?

How could I, like Schacht, go from one extreme to another? And why, when we lose our drive, do we build our lives around putting stuff in our mouths?

(He asked, as he put down his IJ pages and reached for - without leaving his bed - Brooks Psychoanalysis and Storytelling...)