As if we need more evidence…long article, maybe it’s been shared already, but well worth the time (I had to read it in sections, coming back to it piece by piece, the information is staggering to absorb in one sitting). My husband worked in the wine industry before his death (retail, wholesale); he was good at what he did, and spewed many of the myths about alcohol that show up in this article, and often told me the very things that this article addresses (mainly, that drinking “in moderation” has endless “health benefits.”). Turns out, the man who was always right is dead wrong. Funny, I thought maybe I would feel anger or blame or something else negative, coming to this realization, but I first, felt a kind of sadness—that I, alone have carried this burden of guilt for so long, that my excessive drinking is 100% my fault, that I am the one with the problem, that I can’t “handle” alcohol, that it must be some genetic/character/whatever flaw, and how much time I’ve wasted, lugging this heavy load through life. Then, a sort of grace released me (this is happening again and again with this experiment, it’s the hardest thing to explain but floods me with peace, clarity, gentleness that I’ve never before given my self…). You only know what you know at the time, but once you know, you can’t unknow, y’know? (You can quote me on that, if you’d like…☺️)
So much in this piece deeply resonated with me, I would be quoting the whole damned article, which seems rather redundant…
But, this one in particular, got me: “Susan Sontag once wrote that telling people about your cancer diagnosis tends to fill them with mortal dread. But when I’ve disclosed my illness to friends and told them that alcohol can cause breast cancer, I’ve never invoked enough mortal dread to deter anyone from ordering a second drink. Most women have no idea drinking causes breast cancer, and they really don’t want to be told that it does.”
But, this one in particular, got me: “Susan Sontag once wrote that telling people about your cancer diagnosis tends to fill them with mortal dread. But when I’ve disclosed my illness to friends and told them that alcohol can cause breast cancer, I’ve never invoked enough mortal dread to deter anyone from ordering a second drink. Most women have no idea drinking causes breast cancer, and they really don’t want to be told that it does.”