Sunday, June 26, 2005

Rethinking Alcohol and a broken heart. Count your blessings.

I do love Vermont and the wonderful people but I am rethinking my view of alcohol. I never really cared for the stuff and I am not in favor of prohibition. Yet I am just amazed shocked and heartbroken at the devestation it causes in a small town.

I have hardly lived a sheltered life and I witnessed the devestation of drugs in our inner cities. I never got used to it or accepted it. I learned to live with it like it was death and innevitable.

Yet I can not write these words without being heartbroken. I am watching people commit suicide in slow motion. In many ways this is frustrating but I am but a small person. Alcohol has a draw I can not fathom but I pity those who stop eating for a shot.

Each and every day I count my blessings. I understand that life is fleeting and I am blessed with a wonderful family and great friends including 90% of you who read this. The key to happiness is within each and every one of us. Do not worry about your neighbors and keeping up. When life gets you down remember there is someone out there who has it worse then you. There is no crime in falling down but there is shame in not having the honor to pick one's self up.

We are all not here forever so tell the people important in your lives that you love them. If you fall hold your hand out and do not let pride get in your way of help.

Alcoholism is heartbreaking, evil and a tragic waste of a life.

4 comments:

beakerkin said...

Vermont is like a classic painting in its beauty. The rampant alcoholism and smoking are the sad element of pathos in a utopia that never was. It must have been always here but it is the case of Vermont of fantasy versus Vermont of reality.

It is so hard watching people stop eating solid food. That is the last stage and we know what follows next.

This shouldn't bother me as you know where I have been and what I have seen but it does. It is jus heartbreaking to watch good people commit suicide slowly.

Hopefully my cable will be up soon and I will stay in my appartment more. I just can not watch it hurts too much.

Always On Watch said...

I have seen, close up, the effects of alcoholism. I have lost friends and family to this insidious and legal addiction.

Our culture portrays drinking as glamorous and "cool." There's nothing glamorous or "cool" about liver failure, seizures, and destroyed families. And the sad thing about the alcoholic is that all this devastation is done in the name of seeking happiness or in an attempt to drown sorrows. By the time that most alcoholics realize what's happening to their bodies, they are so hooked that it's nearly impossible for them to quit.

Warren said...

Perhaps I am inured to the problems of alcohol.

There is a genetic component to alcoholism and it is common in my family. My brothers are both alcoholics, one quit drinking several years ago and the other is in the processes of killing himself. My grandfathers were both alcoholics and many of my cousins. I worry about my son he drinks too much.

Its sad but what can you do. An alcoholic will not quit drinking until they are ready and many of them are never willing to abstain.

We know what social problems a prohibition brings and its not a viable solution.

Esther said...

It is truly sad. I'm sorry you're seeing this and that it's affecting you so. :( And I'm so sorry for all of you commenting who've had it affect your lives and your families.