Here it is - my quirky subject matter - i can't edit it. So take what you like - ignore what doesn't apply & read about a small place in the current where i have no doubt in my mind that i'm supposed to stand. The current is strong - because there are so many, many smaller issues like this - where we choose differently... Your issues might be different than mine - but i think it's helpful to sometimes see things through the eyes of another.
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call me closed minded...
quote the story in the bible where Jesus turned the water into wine, or remind me of alcohol's medicinal quality. Call me a hypocrite because i still love my morning cup of java, or point to the skyrocketing obesity rates as a more dangerous addiction... but social drinking - or drinking by any other name...
it's not for me.
i have never had alcohol - i know 's a little shocking eh? It was never much of a temptation for me in high school when the drunken bush parties abounded and boys staggered or fought & girls lost their inhibitions... and more.
& now? - it tempts me less.
Maybe 'unwinding' doesn't seem that necessary - maybe there are some for whom, (it seems to me - as an observer), alcohol quiets that still small voice that was making them uncomfortable in the first place. Maybe a more appropriate response would be, "Speak. i'm listening."
Maybe i have seen too much drunkenness... or maybe i'm angry that there is so much pressure to conform to a social convention that preys on the weak & that i have no affinity for. & yeh... most might say they've never felt the pressure... i only had to meet one alcoholic to form my rather harsh sounding views...
Whatever the reason...
i am a teetotaler - & i can't see that ever changing.
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ps - i still love my social drinking friends - and husband - but i guess this post is the sigh that explains my, "no thank-you".
10 comments:
I'm right there with you. :) I could have written this post.
I am also a teetotaler!
ha, that's it? ;)
I totally understand though. I do enjoy a drink once in awhile, but i've seen it ruin so many lives. :(
But that being said, I could care less if someone doesn't want to have a drink. And I don't have an issue with *one*, and yet I do with more than one. So you can call me a hypocrite too ;)
As a minister's daughter, I think my problem with the drink thing has always been the "holier than Thou" attitude often taken - like some people are deemed better than another because "we don't drink, smoke, spit or chew!" I've had a swallow or two in my life but I don't like it and don't see the need, so I end up being the designated driver. I see booze as a coping mechanism for many and glad that hubby is drinking far less than ever before as it does change people negatively... It was very hard for me to try to find "balance" on this topic - from you'd go to hell if you ever touched a drop attitudes to its okay if there is a beer in my fridge. Don't know that I've found the balance yet and I don't really want to think of my kids as experimenting with alcohol either. If I had my way, there wouldn't be any beer in the fridge -- but for different reasons than the legalism with which I was raised! So I'll stand with you, in the current, and toast a celebration with a Coke!!
Saskatchewan Cousin
I didn't know teetotaler was a word!
I've been in a blogging slump, but this gives me the fuel I need to post a response to this. I think you already know where I stand - with you - but my reasons might be slightly different. Thank you for your honesty - I didn't know there were others out there like me! :)
This wasn't what I was expecting! Thank you for posting it. Although, we often have different views on quite a lot, I am actually right there with you on this subject. I don't drink...at all and I am the minority in most situations.
I drank once... 13 years ago... and that was enough to cure me of that :) As a Christian growing up in a non christian home where responsible drinking was encouraged, I never did drink at all (well, that one time) and I still don't. But I watched a majority of my friends, growing up in Christian "dry" houses, get plastered every weekend. I definitely am with you on this subject, even though my husband enjoys an occasional micro brewed beer or local wine.
How do you talk to your children about this topic?
Take heart lovely 'sigher'...You should never have to defend your choices to other people. Some people drink and some people don't. When did this stop being OK?
To some it tastes bad. To some it is wrong. To some it is expensive. To some it is an addiction. To some it is a relief. To some it is a gift from God (I actually heard a minister say that once;-). To some it tastes nice with pasta.
My admiration and respect for you and what you write is not changed by the knowledge that you don't drink nor would it be if you did.
mel - i loved your post.
rachel - i wondered what you'd think... i kinda thought we might be on the same page... thanks for commenting!
lola - with our littles - we're just honest... Cai read this post before i had the courage to post it & she said that she agrees with me. She's the oldest & only 14 - & so the topic of alcohol (& it's possible abuse) hasn't come up that much with our younger crew just yet - i'm hoping to raise a whole crew of teetotalers :)
Having grown up in the back of a church...in a skid row type of neighborhood, I took it for granted that my total abhorance of alcohol in all it's forms would naturally rub off on my family. I've lived too long and seen too much suffering for it to ever be a temptation for me. (and that has nothing to do with any form of legalism) That said, I have no condemnation for social drinkers....just have never personally been vulnerable to social pressure on this point.
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