A young girl wanders into her fathers study. He's sat infront of the computer, relaxing as he plays some game. Mother is in the kitchen, ironing and dancing around in that way she always does, singing along to radio 2. Little sister is busy playing with barbies, but barbies don't really cut it for her any more. She's bored, and no one is paying attention to her.
The study is dark, lit only by the bright glaring desk lamp pointed up at the creamy coloured wall. The light is bounced off in every direction, casting long, low shadows and giving everything an eerie, amber glow. Father lifts something to his lips, and the dancing light plays in the golden liquid contained within. It looks pretty, nothing like she's ever really seen before. It's not clear like her favourite lemonade, but it's much too pale to be orange juice. It must be special, which of course means that it must be absoloutely delicious.
"What's that you're drinking daddy?" she asks, eyes fixated on the globe like glass.
"It's wine. It pickles your brain."
"Why does it do that?"
"Because it has alcohol in it."
Alcohol. She's heard of alcohol before. All things bad are connected to alcohol. Alcohol is brown, and comes in red cans labelled "Duff" and makes Homer Simpson go a little bit silly. It makes people sad and upset. But this wine, this is everything completely opposite to that. It's like a jewel, so pretty to behold, and father seems to be really enjoying it. He isn't sad or silly like Homer Simpson at all.
"How much alcohol does it have?" she asks. There can't be much. If there was that much, surely daddy wouldn't be drinking it. He doesn't do silly things like that. Maybe just a little bit isn't so bad after all.
"About twelve percent"
"Um...how much is that?"
Father, eyes still fixed on the game, explains...if you took all of the drink and divided it up into one hundred equal pieces, then twelve of those pieces would be alcohol. She looks intently at the glass, trying to picture this, but she was never any good with numbers and she can't picture what just twelve little pieces out of a hundred would be. She looks back up at father for more direction.
"Well, that's about..." he points to an invisible line in the glass denoting this magical number twelve "that much is alcohol."
"That doesn't seem very much. Can I try some?" she asks eagerly. To her young mind, what her father has just shown is that all of the alcohol is at the very bottom of the glass, and if she is very careful she will only get to drink the sweet sweet none alcoholic juice floating around in the top of the glass. Her eyes sparkle with delight and anticipation as she waits for a response from father.
"Well alright but I don't think you'll like it"
Not like it? If father likes it, why wouldn't she like it too? Besides, how could something so exotic looking and beautiful be anything but absoloutely delicious? Everyone knew that strawberries were the most beautiful food in the world, and they were just divine. Oh, and cherries. Cherries were pretty and tasty too. She reaches out her little hand and grasps the glass, bringing it carefully to her lips to sip at the ambrosia. She has heard other grown ups talk about wine. They say it's made from grapes, and tastes of peaches or citrus fruits. Not that she really knows what defines a citrus fruit. But fruit is good. And grapes are nice. So deliciously sweet and...
"EEEEEWWWWWWW! Daddy, how can you drink that stuff?"
Thus I tasted my first sip of wine. It was a ritual that would be played out many times. Dad would, on occasion, treat himself to a bottle of wine and I would inevitably become entranced by the idea of it. It was so very grown up. But always in the back of my mind played the terrible thought that "alcohol is bad" fuelled by stern warnings from my grandmother, and reinforced by shows such as the Simpsons. But my curiosity always got the better of me, and in the end I grew up into someone who can really appreciate a glass of wine over dinner. I can even more appreciate less err...refined drinks...on a night out. But those occasions are rare, and it has brought me to the point now where I will just as likely order a coke at the bar as I will an alcoholic drink.
But as for drink and drugs on the whole...well it's like I said yesterday when I was musing over the discussion I'd had with my dietician and I said it there...everything in moderation.
Life is a tremendously complex thing. Just about everything that we need to survive, that is essential for us to survive, can and will and does kill us if too much is taken. Taking the whole dieting thing as an example here...people doing the weight loss rounds at MFP are constantly freaking out over their water consumption...yes, plentiful water is not only healthy and good for us but can contribute to weight loss but then you hear horror stories of water intoxication. On the same note, a more obvious one I suppose given that particular train of thought, is obviously food itself. If you eat any food in great enough quantities you'll end up packing on the pounds and look all around us, people are dying every day from too much food (as sick as this is given the situation in countries where there just isn't enough to go around...but I digress...)
This of course doesn't just work for things that benefit us. Alcohol and other drugs (but for the sake of ease, from henceforth in just kinda crammed into the category of alcohol), yes, like food and water, will kill us. In much much smaller ammounts, and over a much shorter span of time, absoloutely. But in tiny doses, whilst it may not be theraputic, beneficial on any measurable level, once again I reiterate...Life is complex. You cannot just pigeon hole us into the category of "sentient water skin". We have needs and desires and we each can experience the world on so many different levels. Alcohol may not exactly be the greatest medicine around, but it has other benefits, benefits that don't really line up in quite the same way as the benefits of pure water. It serves a completely different purpose.
The thing is, these benefits aren't necissarily requirements for life, and so people start getting picky. If we don't need them why tolerate their harmful effects? I can understand where these people are coming from, especially when, like food, we can see that people can't just take it in moderation and leave it be. Dissecting "other drugs" away from alcohol once more now, obviously some drugs are much more likely to become addictive than others, and in a much more harmful way. And even then there are so many different shades of grey...nicoteine, for example, is a massively addictive drug, but because it is socially acceptable and causes less crime...perhaps ravages he body a little less obviously at first than heroin...no freaky mind bending effects...it isn't necissarily seen as a horrendously bad thing. At worst, it is generally considered a "disgusting habit" than the "slow and horrifically painful way to kill yourself" that it is.
And of course, at best, all drugs to one person or another have the label "cool" for one reason or another.
So anyway...rambling over...I don't think you can pin down all drugs and all alcohol in one neat category and say "bam, definitive, this is it" and with that, decide that they should all be either prohibited or legalized. Each has its own merits, each has its own downfalls. I think it is of the greatest importance to inform and educate our children at a young age of the effects of such things. Like my dad, who did not forbid the wine, but let me have a little sip of it just to try. Had he forbidden it, who knows, I may well have ended up the biggest Lush on the street. Forbidden fruit and all. I think that, for some drugs, the very fact that they are illegal is the biggest initial temptation for some people.
Take away the mystery and bare it down to the raw flesh and bones of the matter though, truthfully, the good with the bad, and perhaps things wouldn't get so bad? I'm not saying that's the answer to all of our problems, but as with all things, so much is said, so much is passed from person to person, so many rumours and mysteries. A little honest truth to our children wouldn't go amiss. Like the child with the wine...if it's so bad like everyone says, why do people do it? It must have something very good about it to counteract all of these bad things...
As for whether I agree or disagree with people taking drugs...not all drugs were created equal, each has its own effects, its own pro's and con's, and I think it's up to everyone to make their own decisions based on the truth of the matter. It's not up to me to dictate or judge. I've made my decision to, on the whole, lead a relatively alcohol and drug free life (except for celebrations and social events where it is honestly just nice to have a drink), for the sake of my own health, my pocket, my partaking in legal society, and because, honestly, I don't like my mind to be too foggy. I like to be clear and focussed.
Because, you know, I cock up enough as it is when I'm NOT under the influence :p
No comments:
Post a Comment
What do you think?