What the heck are we toasting?

At 12:19 two lives in my community changed forever.  One 17-year-old dead and another 17-year-old under house arrest, charged with intoxicated homicide while driving.

Intoxicated.  Tested an hour after the crash and still three times the legal limit.  Allegedly, her step-father gave her the alcohol.  Allegedly, the young man’s grandmother, with whom he lived, was at a club, and his parents lost in their own addictions.

Men in many countries not considered good businessmen if they don’t go out and drink in the evening.

The apartment across from me installed their wine refrigerator weeks before they moved their furniture in when I lived in Denmark.

The examples of how alcohol has become a pillar of many cultures are boundless.

How can this happen?  What are we doing to ourselves?

All around the “civilized” world, it is considered not just acceptable, but encouraged; and if one does not drink, you are suspect.

CWG says that nothing is wrong, only not working, and it is up to us to decide if it is working for us.  God says that one day we will simply choose to not abuse our bodies with drink, drugs and food that doesn’t belong in our bodies.  God also says that if we destroy the world as we know it, the world will still go on…just in a different way.

The 17-year-olds’ worlds have been destroyed and will now have to go on in a very different way.  Life after life is being destroyed because of alcohol, but why?

How many beer/alcohol commercials are there during sporting events?  Do watchers not see that this is in direct conflict with the healthy bodies they expect the athletes to maintain?  Why are they surprised and outraged when an athlete gets into a fight in a bar and shoots someone?  Why are they surprised when they take performance-enhancing drugs?  Are they really worse than the legal drug of alcohol?  As CWG says, helping someone who is on their deathbed die with dignity and releasing them from pain is illegal…but killing yourself (and possibly taking others with you) slowly, because it is legal, is perfectly acceptable.  Huh?

I believe CWG is correct, once again, in saying it is because we do not know who we are, or are not taught it is okay to be who we really are.  I believe it is because we are afraid of our greatness.  If we didn’t medicate and actually faced the world as it is, what might change?  Do you think that we would like what we see?  Do you think that we might choose not to destroy our bodies, and our minds, and possibly our world?

If we took back our greatness…if we saw ourselves as individuations of the Divine…do you think we might see that we have become part of a collective Stockholm Syndrome?  Will we see we have fallen in love with the very thing that enslaves us?

What do you think, beyond words, might be done to change this, to influence the collective, by us as individuals?  I will throw out the first ideas…

Change the channel.

Or don’t drink…it is a choice, not an addiction, for the biggest majority of us.

Or write your television station requesting such ads be removed…it worked to remove tobacco ads from TV in the United States.

There are so many things I can think of that could begin to change this way of being in this world…tell me what ideas you can think of…

Tell me what you are already doing and how you are already demonstrating your greatness!  Maybe others will follow if they know they are not alone.

(Therese Wilson is a published poet, and is the administrator of, and Spiritual Helper at, the global website at www.cwghelpingoutreach.com  She may be contacted at:  Therese@TheGlobalConversation.com.)

Comments

7 responses to “What the heck are we toasting?”

  1. Marko Avatar

    As I understand it, in Germany & some other countries, you lose your drivers license permanently after one drunk offense. Problem mostly solved.

    

There is also the organization called MAD Mothers Against Drunk driving, but I’m not sure they have the impact to do what other European countries have.



    “Or write your television station requesting such ads be removed…it worked to remove tobacco ads from TV in the United States.”

    That would be an excellent start. Yet the consequence of losing your drivers license after any drunk driving offense would probably be one of the most effective ways to curb this.

    Of course we have “drink responsibly” which is an improvement & designated drivers too.

    1. Therese Avatar
      Therese

      I get what you are saying, Marko, but it has been my experience that if someone understands what the real reason is that they do something, they are more likely to not do what harms them, or others. In the case of taking licenses away, ultimately many will make the same choice I see being made when they get taken away after multiple infractions…they either drive without a license, or get a scooter that does not require a license, or start imposing on others to drive them. Rarely does the root behavior change. For me, I don’t think the root behavior is going to change until society starts changing their attitudes. Smoking is on the down-swing, not because of stiff lifestyle changes, rather because of education and pocketbook impact, and peer attitude changes. It is no longer, in most circles, considered “cool” to smoke.

      I would posit that the campaign shouldn’t be “drink responsibly”, rather, “Why drink?”

  2. Lauren Rourk Avatar
    Lauren Rourk

    As in everything in life, always question the intentions behind your actions. The exact opposite direction of growth IS stagnation. When we aren’t consciously aware of WHY we are doing WHAT we are doing, we fall into this stagnation pattern that doesn’t allow for us to grow and thrive as individuals. As long as we keep in our awareness of asking ourselves “Why do I choose to manifest this in my life?”, we prevent ourselves from being overcome and overtaken by these blind external forces. So no matter what your choices are on sobriety are, as long as you are CONSCIOUS of those decisions (and their reasons), then you are still creating your own wonderful path!

  3. Erin Avatar
    Erin

    In a second, with Mom falling & breaking a hip…
    In a second, with a family friend strangled by her baby-daddy…
    In a second, with the passing of a friend’s father…
    In a second, with being hurled into circles on a highway by a side-swipe…
    In a second, with the discovery of the dryer being broken…
    In a second, with the new kitten grabbing the long-time pet bird…
    In a second, with dinner going from stove top to floor…
    In a second, with a deer jumping onto the road…
    Oh, the pebbles thrown into the pond of Life…
    Oh, the changes to those within the ripples.
    Oh, the stuff we become of!

    Rather poetic, yes? Such is Life…Welcome to the likes of a Beatnick’s cafe’!

    1. Therese Avatar
      Therese

      Rather poetic, yes. how about adding a couple of lines like:

      In a second we can change,Be new ripples to the world
      Oh, the joy we could bring, quietly desperate no more.

      ??

  4. Eremophilist Avatar
    Eremophilist

    You have to wonder about a society that thinks it’s “cool” to get so drunk that you vomit, lose control of speech, forget whole hours of an evening, or have your driver’s licence taken away from you. At worst, drinking to excess is stupidly dangerous and harmful, at best (perhaps) immature and unattractive. It’s also a waste of money. I made a decision to become a responsible adult a few years ago, and part of the decision was to give up alcohol. I want to be able to drive at any time of day or night. I want to have a healthy body. I want to be lucid and clear-headed. I want my friends and family to see me at my best. It’s been difficult at times, not fitting in with cultural expectations. But it’s also been an eye-opener, realising the far-reaching influences of alcohol. Social drinking now seems a bit absurd, and drunkenness repellent. So, as a boring teetotaller, what do I do for fun? Well, for starters, I play in a band, and I’m learning woodwork…

    1. Therese Avatar
      Therese

      …and I actually have conversations that I can remember the next morning, and have content beyond the quality of the liquor!

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