Smashed

These were a series of posts while I was reading the book "Smashed"... read it... its pretty much amazing.

I want to encourage everyone to read the book "Smashed" by Koren Zailckas. She was 24 when she wrote this book, just 2 years after she stopped abusing alcohol. She was never an alcoholic, but the book reflects on her journey through alcohol starting in middle school. She discusses how excessive drinking, when it is used by someone to "fit in" or "be honest" or "not feel awkward" or simply "to have fun" makes one bypass learning how to actually do all of those things. She talks about how she was never able to have a relationship without it, because during the time when she should have been learning how to have friendships or romantic relationships, she used alcohol to make herself more comfortable or honest, so she never did it naturally. its a fantastic book and gives good incite into why people feel the need to drink excessively and what the outcome of a life revolving around alcohol is. I would recommend it.

on my own thinking, I was recently thinking about how backwards it is for people who party to look down on those who dont by saying they are "boring" or "dont know how to have fun" when it seem completely the other way around. It seems that only those who dont need chemical help to have fun actually know how to do it. I cannot imagine someone needing to be intoxicated to enjoy spending time with their friends. There seem to be something intrisically wrong with not knowing how to enjoy life around us without chemical help. I love being around my friends for them. When they are drunk.. they lose who they are, they become just like every other drunk person. I enjoy them for them, I dont need my mind altered to like spending time with them. I only wish that they could see how amazing they are in and of themselves, without alcohol.



More on Smashed:

My Grandad recently passed away. The time surrounding his death brought back many memories of his drunken state and opened many of the wounds my mom and my family have because of the narcisitic nature and obsession with alcohol. So much healing came from my mother's time with my Grandad, healing that could have only come from God. but even though my mom and Grandad were reconciled and healing took place- I cannot forget the affect of a life absorbed in alcohol has.
I look around and see my friends, my generation completely obsessed with drunkeness and it scares me. Is there a way to get out of this seemingly neverending cycle of our culture, a culture whose entertainment is wrapped up in sex and alcohol? What about that is healthy? or right? I am surrounded by amazing people who feel they need to mask their true selves or change thier state of mind to enjoy the type of entertainment they have chosen. we may be at the stage when "its only college" and "it doenst affect anyone except me"... but it wont just stop. stress, worries, insecurities, and boredom wont just go away after school or when a family begins. I look around at where we are now... and look back at what my Grandad became.. and worry at what lies ahead.
Why do we always have to take something good and take it to the extreme of being unhealthy? but we as a culture do it with practically everything: Alcohol to drunkeness, food to obesity, fashion to eating disorders, sex to pornography, money to extreme selfish wealth, even religion to self rightous hypocrisy. Can this change? I honestly see no hope except that which God can give. To destroy the hold these extremes have, there has to be a different, better option. I can only pray that God does what he needs to to snap us out of this self-destructive cycle.