"Resolve Is Never Stronger Than In The Morning After The Night It Was Never Weaker"

I couldn't help posting this. It's a quote by David Thewlis' character, Johnny in the film Naked, and since David wrote most of his own lines through improvisation (because that's the way Mike Leigh creates his amazing masterpieces of film), I'm thinking that this may just be an indirect David Thewlis quote.

I've pondered the meaning of this for quite a while, and I just can't think of one particular answer, just a few little ones. The first one must be put into context to understand properly, although it is by far the most simple: for example, say you go out drinking one night. Your resolve to quit drinking is extrememly low, because youre having such a good time and the affects of the alcohol have taken such a great toll on you, you're feeling happy, high, and you want to keep drinking, such is the addictive part which gives the breweries the ability to keep providing you with the alcohol. However, you wake up the next morning with a hangover, feeling like you've been crushed by a thirty tonne lorry. Now your resolve to quit drinking has never been stronger, hence, resolve is never stronger than the morning after it was never weaker.

My second interpretation is simply that we want what we can't have, or have been offered, refused, and now need. Basic human nature is to want what we can't have. If you give a child a toy when they are already playing with something else, they are likely to ignore the new toy in favour of their comforting and familiar toy, but if you try to take the new toy away, tantrums are almost certain. The child sees what they could have had and they want it desperately. We see this in relationships all the time: a girl (for example) is befriended by a lad. He's a good friend to her, and tries persistently to date her, but she thinks they're too far into the "friend zone" for anything to happen, or she thinks he isn't good enough for her, so eventually he gives up, and easily gets himself a girlfriend elsewhere. The girl sees his new relationship, and realises how stupid she was for never taking the opportunity when she could have (this happens all the time. What did you think Sk8r Boi was about?). She sees what she can no longer have and wants it desperately. Her resolve to have him is now stronger than ever. I could put this into a million examples. A person doesn't want to revise, they don't do it, they go into the exam with no idea what to do, they fail, they don't get their qualifications, they can't get a job, they wish they'd revised, but they can't go back in time. A person sees a huge spot on their face, they want to pick it despite the risk of scarring, they squeeze it, it bleeds, they regret it, it scars for a week, they regret it even more, people point it out, all right, we get it, they regret it.

Or maybe it's just that we convince ourselves that something isn't true, even though we know that it damn well is.

(I'll post more on this when I'm not choking to death)