Let me begin by saying that I’m not suggesting those with drinking problems run out to the candy aisle and binge on sugar until they’ve given themselves diabetes. You should never change your diet without the advice of a dietician or your doctor (okay, now that my lawyers feel better, let’s continue).
This explanation isn’t entirely untrue, but what I didn’t say was, “I’m struggling with a potential drinking problem and I’m using daily meditation practice and periodic abstinence in an effort to get it under control. Because, you see, I don’t want to stop drinking entirely, but I also don’t want to become an alcoholic. And if I don’t do something, that’s precisely where I’m heading.” Yeah, “I’m on a cleanse” sounds way better.
Thus, while religion and adherence to it varies widely from person to person and place to place, the ‘god’ the unites us all is money, or more accurately, our collective faith in it. It’s the story you’ve been told all your life: money = happiness, money = freedom, money = everything.
In many of us, there is a hole and we try to fill that hole with alcohol and drugs. But the irony is that these chemicals don’t fill the hole. They simply lay a temporary blanket of fog over the hole. With the hole now hidden from view, our vices dig it ever deeper and wider. The result is often what becomes a seemingly impossible hole to fill.
Having broken down and purchased a six pack of IPA last night, I proceeded to plow through all of it in a few short hours. Upon running out of beer, and not feeling buzzed enough, I made the genius decision to toss back a rather generous glass of Pinot Noir for good measure.