Hopefully its taken you less to figure out but for me forty four point eight years later I’m blown away how much bs we’re all fed since day one. Whether it’s the glorification and seeming importance of alcohol to racial stereotypes surrounding us all daily to the fantastic rose petal romance ideals, it comes down hard. Even Christmas, we see fantastical trees and the one with the most pretty presents underneath makes us drool and lust for greed, in the name of good. We are all baptized in preposterous circumstance and force fed gospel truth lies since before we can remember. And unless we wake up, the bitter drink we keep consuming will continue to nourish our psychosis.
Whoa. That was kinda heavy. But isn’t it true? Put alcohol in your microscope for a second or two. Growing up we see adults consuming it and see ads in magazines of a gathering of close friends all with big smiles on their faces enjoying the liquor. We are shown on TV and in the movies how necessary it is to have a glass of whiskey in a stressful time or at the end of a long work day to unwind. It’s talked up to us in our teens as though turning 18 solely means it is now time to imbibe.
I’ve learnt that the main reason I’ve struggled with the glorious sauce so much is because of these mental visuals and the thought of parting with it is like a death in the family. I’ve looked at it as something to dread and to mourn but until recently the script has been flipped. Reality dictates that the joy of being free of the alcohol trap cancels out any ongoing desire for the poison, as twisted as it ever was that I thought that was what I wanted. The curtain has been pulled back and there is no unseeing of the truth.
The night before last I was snoozing through the film Die Hard With A Vengeance. It co-stars the ever vocal Sam L. Jackson and near the beginning there’s this diatribe of things to remember throughout life that he’s reminding his young son of. One of the sentiments is “don’t ask for any help ever from the white man” and he delivers the line with a smile.
It’s written in this script and delivered in this manner as though the audience would silently say “we get it”. These kind of stereotypes and concepts are introduced to us all at a very young age and today it’s even worse. Pride in your heritage cannot be allowed and jokes like Sam Jacksons, though cringeworthy, still perpetuate the divide. We must re-learn and throw out the lies we saw and were spoken to us, often whispered in our ears when our backs were turned.
Many, many Mondays ago I dated a girl much younger than me who somewhat idolized Disney princess movies. From early on this was presented to her as love and what it should look like. Me being no Prince Charming basically killed any chance I had with her once the initial smoke cleared. I could never be the uber charming stoic male to his fairy tale worshipping princess of perfection with a terribly skewed sense of love and reality.
Ultimately we all need that trip to Oz, not so much to be given gifts but to see the grim reality behind the curtain. We have to reprogram our brains in order to drop these old ways of thinking and begin to create new neural pathways. And the more you understand these lies that were spoon fed to you the more you see how many aspects of your life has been affected.
It’s everywhere and it’s sad. But you can reverse it as easily as the way you stumbled across it. Simply identify it for what it is and replace the old ways of thinking with new, accurate ones. Freedom in the way you now see things will perpetuate every step you take and there will never be the need to turn around again.