Necessities of Life

This may be offensive to some people...well of course it will, in our times EVERY thing is offensive to SOME body.  I have had personal experience with the destructive and bad results of  over indulging in alcohol.  Most of us have someone in our family who has an abuse problem, perhaps knew someone that was hurt or killed by a drunk driver or at a minimum knows what it's like to wake up with that "I doubt I will live through the day hangover" from a fun night the previous evening. Having established that I understand all the negative attributes of alcoholic beverages, I want to state that the availability of a little nip on occasion is one of the necessities of life.

Yep, you heard me. I believe that as a survival tool, both in our present day world or in a world where catastrophe has befell us, a smidgen of alcohol will be imperative.  I once had a critic say of the characters in one of my first novels, They sure do drink a lot.  Really? I guess I never thought of it as a lot.  The characters not only liked their evening "cocktail", they were scavenging for alcohol for it's medicinal use and for it's bartering value.  On a story about Preppers, I saw a minister that had dozens of bottles of booze stored. He believed that it's value as a trading item would be priceless, he was right and smart.  Also, there are very good medicinal purposes as an antiseptic or an anesthetic. 

Think about it.  You're in a post disaster world, you've spent a long day searching for food and purifying water, hoping your chemical mask has protected you from the diseases floating around out there.  You've been fighting off the bad people who didn't do one flippin' thing to prepare for even a minor catastrophe...Zombies (if you believe in such) or just those folks who are starving and totally p.o.'d because the McDonalds is all busted up and closed, their cell phone is down and none of the plugs are working to charge it. You don't think that just a small alcoholic beverage would take the edge off that day? 

The thing is, some of my days in the so called normal world, feel like that.  Life is spectacular these days and hard, complicated, full of things we have no control over.  A toddy at the end of the day can put things right back into mellow perspective.  My ninety year old mother-in-law, god rest her soul, used to call and say, "Honey, if you're going to the county line?"...that was the mystical place where stores exist with shelves of booze and you can buy all you want if you just put one foot on the other side of that boundary..."would you get me a small bottle of whiskey. You know, it helps me sleep." Indeed, it did. That precious woman would take just a shot of bourbon before bed and it was a great sleep aid.

So, my point is, I think that a good smooth alcoholic beverage of your choice is one of the nice necessities of life. Have a bit on hand, you never know when you might need a sip.  JO