A philosopher, a teacher, a minister, an entrepreneur and a writer walk into a bar….Why? Because we are all related to one another and can’t get through a conversation without a drink.
What is it about alcohol? That over-indulging is forgiven — when everything else isn’t? While cigarettes, fat, drugs, sugar and bread get shamed into hiding, would you like another bottle or two of wine before you go? It’s weird that over-drinking is so pervasive and yet more dangerous, surely, than ham?
Unless you are AN ALCOHOLIC – go ahead and drink! A LOT! I mean, who’s counting!? And what the heck is an alcoholic, anyway? Ask 10 people and every single one will give you a different answer. Even its definition is slurring its words.
Lest I be immediately crossed off your invite list — I love wine and booze. I carry social anxiety and it’s always helped ease me into the unknown. But I’ve just been watching how in social gatherings, when perhaps something holy is waiting to be noticed, we soak ourselves and our souls – we find ourselves knocked out by a rumpunch, or noggin off in a pool of our own nutmeg.
I think our souls are lonely and booze stands in for love. Booze binds people in what looks like intimacy, but ends up creating a false closeness; arms hurled across each other, lips locked, love flying. And then lost in the light of a headachey day.
It stands in for love, and it stands in for joy, but it spills across both because it has a hard time with limits. It has poor boundaries, and runs wildly across generations. It opens a door to what we’ve been hiding and lets loose the ugly. It gives you permission to be bitchy, opinionated, sobbing, or inappropriate. It gives you a reason and hands you an excuse. And it steals lives: It throws up its twenties. It passes out at the end of its days. It staggers out of parties into lonely cars on packed highways.
But most of the time, it just really doesn’t see things clearly. I suppose that’s the point — to blur the real. But I wonder why fun always trumps true? I wonder how many of us have lost a tolerance for silence, for real conversation, for intimacy? I wonder if anxiety will ever leave us alone if we don’t let courage build its muscles a bit?
I don’t mean to be a buzz kill. Honestly. I just wonder if drinking too much might be keeping us separate from what we all came together for to begin with.
Starting Close 