Relaxed Seaweed

Relief:  The feeling associated with the removal of stress or discomfort.

I was mulling over the different reaction that alcoholics and earth people have to alcohol.  It is, ahem, striking.  I love the reaction we get in meetings when we describe what happens when we insert alcohol into our blood stream.  The reaction of our fellows is visceral and universal, and it is foreign to people without a drinking problem.

My schtick about the first time I had a beer goes something like this: "I could feel the alcohol move inch by inch down my throat, warming me as it traveled.  My stomach accepted the delivery - the clouds parted, a beam of bright sunlight struck me in the face, the angels sang.  I knew I had found the solution to all of my problems."

I exaggerate everything but that is the god honest truth.

Earth people have a drink to relax.  I have a visual of someone, weary, plopping down in a comfortable chair set up in a meadow or along the shore of a lake.  You know - relaxing, calm. Mild worries collect themselves and stroll away, chattering quietly among themselves.

And then there's the drunk.  He has been fighting off vicious, blood-thirsty, heavily-armed Mongol hordes from the moment he opened his eyes.  Wave after wave after wave of monsters.  He takes the drink and gains some momentum, fending them off.  He pours a vat of hot acid on the hordes and they bubble away.

That's the way it is.  It's relief is what it is.  It's not fun or pleasant or enjoyable.  It's a victory over misery.