WHAT’S YOUR POISON?

 My guess is that we are all addicted to air, water, and food, but beyond that, what has an uncontrollable grip on you, and will not let go? Do you know it by name? Is it a noun or a verb, (a person, place, thing, or perhaps an activity)? Is it making you strong or making you weak? Is it extending your life or shortening your existence? These are just a few of the questions you must ask yourself before you indulge in that next sip, snort, dip, or whiff of your chosen poison.

Some medical professionals say, “Anything in moderation”! However, there are numerous cases where the indulgence with a chosen poison was a first and last time choice. Meaning it became a fatal choice that defied moderation. Like the young girl who was glued to her cell phone and stepped off the curb in front of a semi-truck before her younger brother could grab her or warn her to stop! Or the young man who had one fateful snort of cocaine that permanently stopped his heart! I am sure you could dig up many first-timers on the World Wide Web who never got a second chance to embrace their choice of poison more than a few times, (fatal DUIs, texting while driving, experimenting with hallucinogens, and on and on).

Does it matter if your choice of poison is legal or illegal? Nearly every vice or poison was illegal at one time, (even certain sexual acts)!. What would happen today if the use of these things were still against the law? Would you consider walking away from your vice, or embracing it even more so in private? Would you spend the weekend in jail for indulging in your chosen vice? Would you go to prison because you could not let go of the yoke that binds you? What do you sacrifice now to embrace your vice? Does anyone else suffer due to your “need to feed”? We all get hungry or thirsty for something, but is it something that makes us a better, stronger, healthier person, or is it moving us closer to the grave?

You have probably guessed that the Old Block is a human being as well, so I do not and cannot judge another human being. I can only ask the pertinent questions. When my mother was alive, I asked her these same questions. She said, “Son, If I don’t have my beer and cigarettes, I don’t have any fun at all!” I shut up; went to the store, and bought her a case of beer and a carton of cigarettes!