RANT: Addiction/alcoholism hurts everyone, not just the afflicted…

Yeah, this life sometimes really sucks…

But when you think about it, what’s the alternative?

Only God knows, if you believe in Him…

If you’re an atheist, then okay, nobody knows…

Either way, what’s the alternative?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Keep punching. Keep moving. Never EVER throw the fight!

If you’re traveling this world fully anesthetized all the time, then you are missing out… both you and the people around you are missing out!

And to paraphrase Dr. MLK, the sensation of breathing in your life is just a belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit.

And to also paraphrase boxing legend Muhammad Ali, “You out suckah!”

You owe it to yourself — and especially your children — to keep punching… keep moving… never ever throw the fight!

I’ve seen more death than most (seemingly on a daily basis at times lately). I’ve seen suicides… overdoses… and people who gave up and slowly drank themselves to death… In each of the aforementioned situations, it invariably left an ongoing wake of pain in those who cared.

It also left a great deal of anger.

It’s tragic when a child loses a parent suddenly… it’s ever more so tragic when it could have been prevented.

Yes, addiction/alcoholism is a disease… but it’s often a self-centered selfish disease… IMO, in many cases it’s a slow form of suicide which can only be stopped by the afflicted individual getting real with himself and others… and most importantly getting real with God (or some higher power… or something bigger than oneself…).

I recently had someone close die. He had been drinking way too much lately… more than usual… He isolated himself and was eventually found dead.

(I knew him better than most… and I’ve known him ever since he was in diapers… and I want his recent death to mean something…)

It angered me at first because I’ve been watching him die for years. Something inside me always hoped he could have defied the odds to at least be around for his young children.

Someone asked me when was the last time I saw him. Well, I saw him being hauled away in an ambulance one night recently… BUT THAT WASN’T REALLY HIM…

No, the last time I really saw the real “him” was decades ago before he began hitting the booze.

It may be fun hanging out with gregarious drunks for at least a little while… But if you care…. I mean if you really truly care about your friend, eventually you’re going to have your heart ripped out and stomped on until it’s as hard and black as a hockey puck…

And if you keep sticking around for more, trying to either “help” or make sense of the insanity of it all, your hockey puck heart will be continually battered like so many torn up and abused driveway pucks…. with angry young kids viciously taking unexpected slap shots and driving you into the side of some dented up garage door.

Been there and done that… and it sucks…

It’s best to detach while you can still remember your friend when he was truly himself.

In this case, he was last truly himself sometime back in the late 1970s. Those are the memories I prefer to keep fresh in my mind…

I hope you’re at rest now my friend. Keep your stick on the ice in heaven and for God’s sake, stay away from the cooler for a change.

4/9/2015

Robert Bastille,

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P.S. — This HyTown Vignette is brought to you by Ray LaMontagne… (Press play… and whatever you do, keep moving…)