Drinking

Cancer and drinking alcohol shouldn’t mix, but they do for me since I’m a bartender.  The day I was born my Mom, Dad, and I toasted my big day.  I haven’t liked Gin or Scotch since.  That being said, on a couple of occasions I’ve tried estimating the number of beers I drank since I started at 16 years old.  Figure at least a twelve pack a week for 44 years, that’s easily 28,000 beers.  Dollar wise it’s more than the GNP of some countries.  Relative to cancer, chemo therapy makes beer taste awful.  My brother Mark once asked me stop the chemo treatment so I could keep drinking Bud heavies with him.  My oncologist gave me the stink eye when I asked about it, so cooler heads prevailed.  Religious people have also tried to intervene.  When I lived in Oklahoma I was dragging the recyclables out one Sunday morning after a big St. Paddy’s Day Party.  My nosy neighbor yelled across the yard that drinking alcohol was a sin.  I yelled back that Christ’s first miracle was the Wedding at Cana when He converted water into wine, not chocolate syrup.  Thankfully, she never spoke to me again.  While at Notre Dame the school had a program called Free University where students could teach a class on any topic.  Of course, I taught a bar tending class complete with a bar exam as the final.  It got a little out of hand after we started making drinks called Bar Rags;  Notre Dame cancelled Free University not too long after.  Apparently a few bad apples ruined the program for eveyone else.   As I think back about cancer and drinking,  without a hitch every time I got a bad diagnosis Diane and I would drown our tears in drinks.  The same is true whenever we got good news.  Come to think about it, the same is true most days at 10:00 AM in Goodland, FL without the tears.  I’ve contemplated moderating my intake, but the last time I tried it the US economy tanked.  In good conscious, I felt bad about putting so many people in the liquor industry out of work.  Ultimately, when it comes to your own personal health and challenges, everyone has a mix of vices and merits.  Mine is clearly Corona, Molson’s, and Jameson to name a few.   Yes, alcohol has its bad effects, but for me it makes the low points of life a little more bearable.  “Bottoms Up!”