Weddings
Jan 2, 09- (by Therapy Doc)
- one response
- Controversy Alley, Mind, Body, Spirit, Pros and Pro's, Sober Salon
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If you read my posts at Everyone Needs Therapy, especially the more recent post about Friend Poaching, then you know I go to a lot of weddings. I’m at the age where the children of my friends are all either married, or they’re getting married. Not everyone, but enough of them to really give my credit cards a beating.
I’m not complaining.
The last wedding had an open bar. I personally appreciate this very much. I like to walk into a shmorg and either get a mixed drink or a glass of wine, because the two go together so well sometimes, appetizers and an appertif. But you could fool me with a glass of straight tomato juice in a heartbeat.
No one, as far as I could see, at this wedding, got plastered. An open bar. Open access. Free. Flowing like water. And I’ll bet that if one person out of 400 got plastered that would be a lot.
How’s that happen?
I don’t know. I’m guessing that this religious crowd values fun, but doesn’t see getting drunk as fun. A little alcohol, a social drink, and the groove is on for some, for sure. For many, however, it’s Diet Coke and I swear to you, this is not because these people are working 12- Step programs.
Oh, and let’s not forget that this crowd, an Orthodox Jewish crowd, works the original program every day, all day. They take their cues from organized religion, try to live life the way they think their Higher Power thinks they should live it. For example, not really needing two new years days, most Orthodox Jews I know wouldn’t even consider drinking on New Years Eve, December 31, 2008.
I think that the 12 Step Program works because most, if not all of its tenets have been lifted from Judeo-Christian principles. Which is totally good. But it’s not something that I, personally, would drink to.
Happy New Year, travelors
May it be a blessing.
therapydoc
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Unless of course, they are repressed homosexual Christians who drink for escapism.
I’m not picking a fight and I appreciate your post. I know plenty of people within the institutions of religion who are lying to themselves about their happiness, and that makes them ripe for escapism.
I, however, had a wonderful New Year’s and in any social event with my friends, or strangers, love to avoid being drunk. Because life offers less precious moments than we realize, and they are to be celebrated and remembered!