Only by putting an end to delusions can we get rid of the dust.
Wu Ch'eng
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In my young man days, as soon as I reached drinking age I went at it with "gusto" as the old TV commercial used to say. I enjoyed drinking beer with my buddies. I loved my beer, especially during Summer Theatre. We would get out of work at about eleven and have two hours before the bar closed. We'd get there and everyone would order a pitcher. A mug of beer cost a quarter, a pitcher was a dollar. Can you believe that? Well, it was in the 60's on Cape Cod. I could easily down two pitchers before closing time.
I could drink buckets of beer. I never passed out or got uncontrollably drunk. I would just climb into a state of advanced alcoholic jollity.
Along the way I learned an important lesson and finally made a vow to myself. The vow was: "Never do anything you decide to do when you've been drinking." I've kept that vow all my life and it has saved me a lot of trouble.
Now, in my senior years I hardly ever do any drinking. They have closed the local bar to build condominiums, which of course they aren't doing. The nearest liquor store is impassibly far away even if I could afford something harder, which I can't. So today my liquor of opportunity and choice is coffee. I love my coffee and it doesn't keep me awake.
So now I have another vow I have made for myself. "Never plan to do anything you decide to do when first waking up." In that semi-somnambulate state between half awake and half asleep my mind conceives of the most grandiose plans for where I'm going to go and what I am going to do. I can map out an exciting and adventurous future for myself starting as soon as I get out of bed. But it doesn't take long after I stagger to the stove to start the kettle, stagger to the bathroom and back and sit down with my first mug of coffee to realize that the great heroic act is not going to happen.
So I waste no more time on it. I vow not only not to plan it but also not to think about it. I put it right out of my head, and then, in a soberly manner, I begin with the business of the day.
DB - The Vagabond
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6 comments:
I got more than a few chuckles out of this db. Nice trip down memory lane remembering a time when a person could afford to buy a few beers. Not so anymore and the price of hard liquor is unaffordable for most. I snicker to myself as I do the same thing in the morning. Lay in bed and think up ambitious plans for my day. The second my feet hit the floor, I start making excuses for why I cannot do any of it. Just not going to happen so why do I waste my time thinking that it will? You have offered a very good solution but it does not seem like much fun.
It used to be during our younger years it was best for us to sleep and wake with a pad at hand, the better to capture those fleeting moments when a good idea would come into our heads. Now it is prolly best that we wait until the apparatus 'warms up' before we find such inspiration.
I really like the mood of this entry. Be well.
I enjoyed this, DB. Still smiling... Val xox
I never drank beer! But I certainly loved Cape Cod
I also am unable to consume the amount of my choice of drink at my current age! I guess the body tells you what you can and can't do these days!
Good Post!
Hugs, Rose
Now me, I always followed up on my most grandiose plans which would include something like, "I think I will pack up all my stuff oh yes and my kids and my 3 legged dog in my little VW and move to Los Angeles!" And then I would do it! I never decided to move across country that I didn't do it, once that idea took hold of me, and what is more I would think of ideas like this for other people and more than likely talk them into doing it, too. I told my son Raymond I thought it would be a wonderful idea for you to move to Phoenix to this complex, and he agreed! I taught him well. He packs up and somehow thinks of a way to move to big cities somewhere all the time. That's what took him to Austin. He said he thinks he is going back to Austin by the end of the month and make a movie, which might lead to him moving to LA, which might lead to---- I said DB is depressed, I think he needs a change of scene. That is how I ended up living for a month back in Ohio on Geneva on the Lake. This guy talked me into doing it. He drove us back there, he was a great adventurer, but he also turned out to be an ex convict who stole my car while I was back there, well, it was 7 years old so he probably thought it was no big deal. I had to borrow money from my sister who excused this debt when she died, and take the Grayhound bus back, but my kids got to see Ohio, their dad who was shocked, and I have never had a chance to go cross country since. I never saw or heard from that guy again but I trusted him because he was one of the few BFs I ever had who did not drink!
Love beer, but never been to Cape Cod.
Beer and coffee, one starts my day and one ends it, and I would not have it any other way.
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