Have a Drink on Me

My experience in Alcoholics Anonymous has taught me that it's difficult to remove by logic an idea not placed there by logic in the first place.  Trying to tell someone who is still drinking - someone who probably thinks that alcohol is the only thing worth living for, the last refuge, a best friend and lover - that it would be in his best interest to stop drinking is a fool's errand.  Confronting deeply held, habitual feelings with logic seldom works.  I know I was moving through the world mostly on autopilot, doing the same things today that I did yesterday.  It's why I was surprised when there wasn't another beer in the fridge or there was only one Oreo in the bag that I bought that very morning.  The motivations and habit patterns that were underlying most of my behaviors were simply illogical.

I heard a woman share recently about feeling perplexed when she found herself eating a piece of cheesecake when she wasn't hungry.  Fill a want without thinking it through.  I get that.  Have another drink!  Have a drink on me!!

I went to the doctor not long ago so he could have a look at a troublesome wart. 

"That's not a wart," he remarked.  "That's a basel cell carcinoma."  Skin cancer.  He made me take off my shirt and he found a couple more, including a squamous cell carcinoma.  Turns out everything turned out fine but, man, that cancer word gets your attention.  The good news is that we're living longer - the bad news is that the years are tacked on to the end of your life.