Sometimes I feel that we give too little consideration to our effect on others, when we make life choices that we think are perfectly harmless, to ourselves and to others. This is one such example, which I am excrutiatingly aware of, hence the strong tone of these words …

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If you had an Alcoholic in your life, more than one even, would you find ‘sophisticated’ ads for alcohol attractive?
If you had watched people being hurt by the disease of alcoholism, would you play with the same fire?
Would you challenge loved ones, who were not prepared to condone the glamorisation of what is, effectively, a mind-altering drug, so that you could be seen to be ‘cool’?
What pain are you hiding behind that drink?
Can you laugh without it?
Do you know that you are one person when you drink, and another when you don’t?
Do you know that alcoholism creeps up when we least expect it, and its true face is only seen behind closed doors?
Have you ever been abused or seduced by a person who was drunk?
Have you done anything you regret, after drinking a few?
Have you lost a relationship through alcoholic rages and verbal abuse?
Do you know how hard it is to keep your head up after you’ve been abused? That it can takes decades to heal? That the pain can be passed down through generations?
Have you lost a parent who was drunk when they died?
Can you say “no”, after only one alcoholic drink?
It might be fun to drink, to mix drinks, to play act at being sophisticated, but at least take a proper look at the subject, before diving in and then nailing or ridiculing those who choose to keep their own heads on.
Oh, and think how much more intelligent and sincere you’d look in the morning, without a hangover.
Alcohol is NOT all it’s cracked up to be;
If it were, many leaders would not have walked away from it.
Just saying.

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Written with sincerity by one who has ‘the TShirt, the Diploma and the Degree’, whose eyes lost their scales a long time ago, and is fortified now to pass even on the “healthy, life-giving effects” of red, red wine.

Holly x