The appetite grows on what it feeds on.

CS Lewis has a great riff in the Screwtape Letters. He talks about the common experience we all have of a temptation intensifying as if it were a pressure building up. He says that the devilish tactic in that situation is to convince you to sin a little to “let off the pressure” before it gets too strong.

Of course the whole metaphor of sinning as bleeding off temptation pressure is wrong. The temptation grows when you feed it.

Now let me tell you a story.  By the end your respect for ol G. will diminish a little.

We share a building with several other concerns. One of them, I gather, is a little peculiar. It’s been around for awhile, at least two generations, and they are very tightknit. They have a table with a display they put up in a sort of common lobby area that we all share but that is not open to the public. The centerpiece has a very old battle drum, a real relic from way back when, that it seems was important to the founder of that concern and has ongoing significance to it today. They treat it with a lot of reverence.

There is a drumstick on the display next to the drum.

For a long time I kept wanting to hit the drumstick on the drum. I figured if I did it gently no harm would result. The drum seems to be in pretty good shape, probably the actual leather part is new. But I refrained because they really treat that drum reverently. I figured it would be quasi-sacrilegious.

The desire grew.

One Saturday I happened to be in the office, all alone in the building. I decided to give in to the temptation. I tapped the drum. Thwaaat. The end. Tempation over, problem solved.

The next time I walked by the drum I wanted to hit it more than ever.

I’ve probably tapped it a dozen times by now. Now I’m wanting to hit it HARD, though I won’t.

This is not a metaphor. At least, this is not just a metaphor. The drum is real, and everything has happened as I described it.