"I didn't give up alcohol because I wanted to flee the evils of the world. I gave up alcohol as a way of engaging the evils of the world."

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Chayla said:
Here it is:
christianitytoday.com/ct/2014/june/teetotalers-i-never-knew-alcohol.html?paging=off
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Another interesting article. I specially liked the differation between temperance and total abstention. For they are indeed two different things.

I think this all ties in with the Zero Tolerance attitude prevalent now. A glass of wine a month is the same as a quart of Everclear daily? Not to me. One cigar a month is equivalent to a carton of Camels every other day? No! I guess you could say that I have zero tolerance for Zero Tolerance.

I am 58 and I take many prescriptions for my many ailments. But I just don’t understand or approve the extremes people take currently. I have one drink on rare occasions, at home with friends. And that is it. The vast majority of the time I have fun and enjoy myself without drink at all.

I learned from my Fundamentalist parents that it is possible to have an occasional drink without becoming drunk. Booze is not exciting or taboo to me. It is just a part of living that I can take or just as easily leave. And most of the time I leave it alone.
 
I gave up alcohol because it was destroying my life, my family and my health.
 
christofirst said:
…when I researched his side of our family I discovered a long love-hate relationship with alcohol. It seemed to skip generations: my 3rd great grandfather clearly was a problem drinker, and his son was (consequently?) a strident teetotaler. My dad’s drinking damaged his health and relationships, and I do not drink. But my adult son does…
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I’ve seen this before often enough to wonder if there is a causative explanation. Is it possible that this is a series of over-reaction against unhealthy attitudes about alcohol? One generation grows up watching the parent abuse alcohol and vows never to touch demon rum. The next generation grows up watching the parent declare something to be evil when it is good when used properly and rejects the parental example entirely - leading to eventual alcohol abuse.

I have plenty of alcohol abuse history on both sides of my family, but I believe that I’ve arrived at the correct approach: alcohol is good in it’s limited place. We have wine at big family dinners, I drink occasional beer and the occasional marguerita when there is company. But mostly, the wine gets dusty before it’s used and the beer has to be kept in the fridge or it gets icky before I drink it. We’ve carved a small place for alcohol and we keep it IN that place.

Caffeine, on the other hand, has to be from the devil! Just can’t control my use there! 🙂
 
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