Have another beer

Addicts are impulsive and compulsive. They have to have what they want when they want it.

It is difficult to find the space between impulse and action, that space that allows judgement to flow like a cooling breeze to dampen the heat of compulsion, that perspective that allows discernment which would stifle my tongue which would rush to spit out words that attack and slash and wound those who are nothing but innocent bystanders or those who have gotten in between me and my fix.

Addiction not only affects the person enslaved but those who are in relation with the person so possessed.

The realization that people are impacted by addiction brings shame because we know this is not how things are meant to be. This is not how human beings are meant to behave and live. The breweries have lied to us. The distilleries have lied to us. They have insidiously convinced us and our children that their products offer us the good life. Some are foolish enough, empty enough, confused enough, illiterate enough, to believe such promises.

Human beings hate their lives and love their intoxicants. Their intoxicants take them out of their boredom, out of their suffering, out of their anxiety and fears. Intoxicants weaken their hatreds and disgust for themselves and their lives.

Facing addiction brings one to the perennial and greatest questions of human existence, for what was I born, how should I live, what is the meaning of my life, what happens when I die?

Recovery is not about quitting. It is about starting. Recovery is about creating enough space in one's life to begin to explore the basic question of how should I live my life?

It is the fundamental question that most people don't have the courage to ask, to explore, to pursue. It's so much easier to just have another beer. This Bud's for you.