My Goodness I live in a booze soaked world ! It's every-bloody-where. No wonder so many people struggle with the goddam stuff. It's so normalised.
Me and my 12-year-old just drove around delivering letters to families from the local Scout group as part of a fundraiser.. the letters were for a special wine offer!! Oh how we laughed at the irony of the situation. Here was a sober housewife, one who wrote a book about getting sober, one who promotes sobriety all over social media, blogs and runs a website for people who are getting sober.. delivering wine promotions around her neighbourhood!! Don't tell anyone!! (Whoops, too late).
Should I have not been doing it? Well sure, I could have taken a little personal stand and not.. but I'm part of a group working hard to raise money for our Scouts going to Jamboree and someone else came up with this idea and I wanted to do my bit to help out.
And this is the world I live in. One where selling wine is a good way to raise funds because a lot of people will buy it (we get some money back from the wine company for every bottle/case that we sell).
While we were driving an ad came on the radio about daylight savings which came into force today.. it went "Don't forget clocks went forward this morning...so you've got one less hour to recover from your hangover." Wtf??!! I had a rant to Mr 12 about how this sort of line being said on a 'cool' radio station makes it seem totally ok to be hungover and also how expected it is that many people are hungover on a Sunday morning because getting drunk on Saturday night is what we do.
This is normalising alcohol and boozing and hangovers!!! But this is the world I live in. One where mainstream radio stations reference hangovers in relation to clocks going forward.
I could have taken a wee stand at this point and switched stations in protest but then they played Sia Cheap Thrills and I love that song.
Mr D has just arrived back from the States (yay!) and he made a comment about how noticeable it is when you fly into New Zealand airports that you are greeted by a huge wall of booze in Duty Free.. "and everyone is running for it" he said.
Booze soaked society. Booze soaked country. Booze soaked world.
I could feel angry about all of this or sad and left out of the 'fun' gang or a host of other emotions. But I don't. I just feel grateful and relieved to be free from that boozy trap and living my life without touching that shit ever. As I've always said.. there are many clever people working hard to try and change the big picture.. I just want to focus my energies on me and my truth, and on anyone else who is being honest and brave and wants to change their relationship with alcohol.
So today after having just felt the full force of my booze soaked world, I'm calm in my space and all the more determined to help other people get free by shouting from the rooftops at any available moment BEING SOBER IS AMAZING!!!! RECOVERY IS AWESOME!!!! I AM SO HAPPY I NEVER TOUCH ANY ALCOHOL EVER!!!!!
Love, Mrs D xxx
You go Mrs D! :)
ReplyDeleteAwareness - Not only for alcohol but I am more conscious of mental illness and other addictions in my friends and how that is represented and often made fun of on TV. Great post!
ReplyDeleteAfter stopping drinking, the pervasiveness of the alcohol culture we live in is just shocking. I always was aware before but now I see it x1000. Even the dumb Pottery Barn catalog shows the full glasses of wine set out on the coffee/dining table they are selling. Commercials, magazines, social media, everyone seems like they can barely get through life without the stuff! My older one is 11 and he's probably getting tired of hearing me rant against commercials on TV ("what are they saying?? Do you get the message - that life cannot be FUN without a poisonous beverage??! NOT TRUE." and so on:)
ReplyDeleteLove your posts!
ReplyDeleteThey always make me happy I quit, too!
xo
Wendy
I recently bought from Amazon Allan Carr's 'Stop Drinking' book and it came along with a voucher for discounted cases of wine. [snort]
ReplyDeleteI've just joined the board of my child's early childhood centre and at my first meeting they were debriefing the latest fundraiser (at which there was a cash bar). The comment made was "Alcohol is really bloody good for making money!!!". And therein lies the reason booze flows through many community based organisations, sports clubs, and fundraising such as your lad's Scout Group. In the past I would have thought, 'Hell yeah alcohol!' but at the meeting the comment really stuck out in my sober brain. I must say MY world is far less booze soaked now I'm choosing to stay clear of the stuff!!!
ReplyDeleteI've been formulating a post about this every thing....I may need to steal your terminology "booze soaked world.' I wonder why, why do the majority of people drink alcohol? Why are we not teaching people how to live their lives authentically, feeling all that comes our way and figuring out how to navigate the tough stuff without dulling our senses.
ReplyDeleteI'm so in tune with this post. And I totally agree with your last three sentences. That happiness is worth gold!
ReplyDeleteIt's a trap and and insidious one at that .
ReplyDeleteWhen I was growing up drinking and drugging was rock n roll , now being stone cold sober is the new rock n roll . Brainwashing from an early age that one must drink to enjoy anything , standing back looking at it objectively it's so bloody sad ! Nothing better than spending an evening surrounded by red faced drinkers to recharge the sober batteries , I come away from these events elated that I do not drink anymore :) Hey Mrs D , you lead I follow @SatnicTaxi
Yes! This!! Social Media is another HUMONGOUS perpetuator of normalizing alcohol abuse. As a woman with children I am bombarded on Facebook with meme's of "Why Mommy Drinks" and You Tube videos of Mom's ranting while sipping their booze, cute sayings and wooden signs for sale all glorifying alcohol abuse, yet the misery and HELL of it all is swept under the rug and NEVER openly talked about on social media.
ReplyDeleteMy Blog: http://mysticmeyehm.blogspot.com/