when i was growing up i watched someone i loved dearly die slowly and over many years, due to alcohol. she was a beautiful, smart, vivacious woman with a fantastic sense of humour. she had been a national sports woman, a mother, a wife, a sister, a friend. she had the most beautiful voice when she spoke with her thick danish accent. her hazel eyes were sweet and shy. she was just over five foot tall in a family where the rest of us were around six foot. she was incredible.
until she drank...........................
then she was unable to be a wife, a mother or anything else she had signed up for in life. her voice became loud and frightening and her small frame became powerful and violent. that violence was understandably fuelled by a haunting start in her own life. she would live out her need to fight back and be stronger and faster than the enemy this time. except there was no enemy and her battle was in vain. and super destructive to all that she had created.
then one night, at fifty one, when i was eighteen, she died. she just died. her body gave up. all that alcohol had taken its toll and her body would not regenerate itself for one more round.
i should hate alcohol.
but i don't.
because every single day i see people drinking socially with impunity. for a social glow. for fun. because they can. and i don't ever begrudge a single soul their chance to unwind, slow down, get a little too chatty..or a little too flirty..or whatever it is that happens when they take a drink.
my view on alcohol is that it is innocuous. that clearly there are problems with some peoples reactions to alcohol but that that is the actual problem. each persons specific reaction. theres no denying that we as a society, in Australia anyway, have massive alcohol related issues. but the problem is not inside the bottle. its inside the person.
if i drink and i have an adverse reaction then the problem is inside me. what happens after that has been identified is a whole 'nother blog
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