Some months back I met my first Argentinean. It’s funny how
you always remember your first representative of a foreign country, somehow we
tend to stereotype the remaining population based on that initial acquaintance,
whether right or wrong. Anyway, I’m going to cut a long story short because to
be frank, I’m rather tired but must be back by popular demand. For the sake of
this story I will call him Gerardo, that is not his real name because I can not
for the life of me recall it. I’m partially lazy at remembering people tags and
also tend to get overwhelmed by the introduction experience that they quite
often escape me. So Gerardo informed me that 2 years earlier, in his quest to
start a healthier life and a small family, he went all cold turkey on the
alcohol front. Not regretting his decision one bit and in fact, claiming that
he would never drink again, he noted that the one thing that drove him nuts was
the stench of booze on his wife.
I have quietly pondered this comment for the last 48 days.
Refraining from the delights of champagne for 100 days is one thing, but to
really believe it has no place in your life….FOREVER…is an entirely different
idea.
Tonight, in an effort to expand my cultural horizons, I
spent 2 ½ hours watching a fabulous play, a comedy surrounding a teenage girl
with cancer. Not much of an oxymoron there! Unfortunately, my friend and I were
wedged between a bottle shop and a garbage truck. Gerardo had a good point it
seems because, for the very first time, I felt repulsed by the smell of alcohol
wafting off another’s breath. In moments
like these you simply must question the benefits of paying for the privilege to
sit in close proximity to a bunch of strangers with questionable personal
hygiene. Walking home, I passed the Crown Street
bars and felt no desire to mingle with the masses. I have lost all enthusiasm
to talk a load of hogswallop with people who won’t even remember the
conversation once they wake up the following afternoon. That was me once. I
honestly don’t know at this point what lies at the end of this journey. Nothing is forever they say, a strangely
comforting yet disturbing notion.
No comments:
Post a Comment