Blog 197 – 12.31.15

Tonight near midnight wherever you are chances are you will hear the song Auld Lang Syne. It was written by the Scot poet Robert Burns in the 1700s and was never intended to be a holiday song. So much for good intentions, Rabbie Burns. The Scot phrase literally translates “times gone by” and is about remembering friends from the past and not letting them be forgotten.

Not one for “conventional wisdom” I would like to take a look at the New Years Eve custom of getting drunk and crying in our beer over lost friends and loved ones, this annual pity party where we try to drag the baggage of the past into the New Year. Well, Dave, tell is what you really think.

Okay, I will. First of all I cannot get my mind around why one has to get plastered to have a good time. I am not a tee-totaller, one who believes one should never take a drink of alcohol. I might add here that even a lot of Christian Fundamentalist who preach abstaining from alcohol take over the counter medications for cold and flu symptoms that have high alcohol content some as much as 40%, that is 80 proof for those of you more acquainted with how booze is rated for octane or potency. I learned that from a couple of alcoholic friends who had to have it when the liquor stores were closed. Vick’s NyQuil is 80 proof and even comes with a convenient plastic shot glass atop the bottle. One of my first girl friends dad’s kept a fifth of whiskey with a candy cane in it for his family’s cold and flu like symptoms. And this was before NyQuil came out. So to my point, I am not against a spoonful of liquor to help the itchy, sneezy, so you can rest sugar go down but I am against marketing that the only way to have fun is to make the brewers and distillers even richer. The cigarette companies are not the only ones who kill their customers legally. The number one addictive drug sold legally or illegally is alcohol and more lives are ruined by it than heroin, meth, crack, and all the illicit drugs combined. I think people who drink to excess, more than a spoonful or a social drink, do so to numb the pain. Numbing pain is a very dangerous activity. Pain is a signal there is something wrong that needs to be dealt with not masked.

Back to the “pity party” aspect of the New Year’s Eve celebrations. “Looking back” is not a safe way to walk nor the best way to live one’s life. It is not disloyal to departed friends and love ones to go on living and even to make new friends and loved ones. Why even the marriage vow binds one only “till death do us part.” And many of us find that a little too restrictive. So what is with this grieving a lifetime over someone who had the good fortune of getting what we called in the military “an early out.” We have this all backwards, living is for the living and how exactly is one to do that dragging around a bunch of dead folks.

I am reminded of the symbol of the ole South, an old Confederate solider yelling, “Forget Hell.” Why, even the song Dixie says, “Where ole times there are not forgotten.”
I guess, the saying stereotypical of the New York and New Jersey Yankees just makes more sense to me, “Forget about it.”

One day at a time is the best way to live. The departed had their day and many of us believe we will see them again later but that will be a different today. Happy New Years Day to one and all and my wish for each and all is that it will not be ruined by a hang over or haunted by ghosts from the past.

Your friend and fellow traveler,
David White