Posted by:
Stray Mutt
(
)
Date: June 05, 2012 09:36AM
Back when I was a good, non-drinking, ill-informed, scared Mormon, I believed I would become a gutter-crawling alcoholic if I ever drank alcohol. I was wrong. I have maybe a drink a week, sometimes two, and sometimes it's weeks between drinks. Woo! Party on!
I was running errands yesterday. Christopher Hitchens was on my mind. A North Carolina state liquor store was up ahead. Hitch liked Johnnie Walker Black. I hadn't had scotch in a long time.
Though I'd been in this liquor store before, it suddenly hit me how normal the experience was. The store was normal (just go to the scotch section and grab a bottle) but, more importantly, *I* was normal. No feelings of shame, sinfulness and failure. It felt no different from buying milk at a convenience store. (A nice, uncluttered, skeevy-character-free convenience store.)
So, after dinner, I settled into my easy chair with a book and a bit of Johnnie Walker Black, neat. I sipped as I read. How civilized. How Normal.