Underage Drinking on the Mayflower

November 22, 2012

There was no drinking water on the Mayflower voyage. Every man woman and child was issued beer to drink. This gave new meaning to the word sloshed. It also gives a new reason for the Pilgrims to be seriously thankful to end the trip.  Ironically it is the Brits who are celebrating Alcohol Awareness Week while Americans prepare to guzzle all weekend in the name of thankfulness/football.  The British are suggesting that the use of an alcohol unit calculator will shock most people.  I am sure this is like the food list for eating awareness.  Addictive eating and drinking is by definition kept unconscious.  Much energy is spent giving holidays the power to force overeating and drunken excess.  This illustrates the general state of mental decay we promote.  A holiday honestly does not have the power to make you do anything.   Turkeys and cocktails are not a force, they are symbols.

How much change can you create by choosing Thanksgiving as the day to begin knowing how much you really drink?  This holiday has special meaning to me because it was at Thanksgiving that my dad got so publicly drunk that I was able to convince him to go to Betty Ford.  He was 81, and the treatment did not work because he went right back to Texas to his supportive drunken environment. My parents had to be removed entirely from the state to begin to address the issue.  This year while you do your holiday bar tending, filling your home with extra cheer, don’t kid yourself.  Calculate.