Listerine

A friend of mine has been struggling with his marriage.  He has two small children and a wife who does a little alcoholic drinking on the side as well as in the front with the side yard not being out of the question.  He has been trying to hold his family together but it isn't going very well.  I applaud his efforts - seeing a counselor on his own and also with his wife in addition to the usual Program outreach.  As a man who generally can't find his ass with both hands I try to stay out of the advice business.  My track record as a low-grade idiot doesn't qualify me to tell people where to get a good hamburger let alone pass out marriage counseling or career advice.  He's doing the right legwork and he has a sponsor that the talks to on a regular basis.  Our conversations are much more infrequent so I tell him to listen to people that are getting the frequent updates.

A few days ago he told me that he had been having the occasional nip on the Listerine bottle. Drinking mouthwash is dicey business for just about anyone but this dude is a diabetic so god in his heaven only knows what kind of risks he's taking.

This time I gave out some advice with a Capital A, along the lines of: "If there is something going on in my personal life: marriage or child-rearing issues, problems with my parents or financial difficulties or anything at work - I don't give a shit what it is - that's leading me to a plastic mouthwash bottle on a regular basis I'm going to take a long, hard look at the situation."

There is nothing worth dying for.