I am often asked why I don't drink. Before answering that question, I should probably say that I do occasionally have a drink, but only on special occasions and only with my closest friends. And I enjoy the buzz that a single drink (consumed once or twice a year) will produce. But it is true that I almost never drink, and I have never been drunk.
No, I am not an alcoholic. No, I am not morally or religiously opposed to drinking.
As a teenager, I worked in the clubhouse of a nearby golf course, in their dining room and kitchen. I waited tables, cooked hamburgers, worked the counter, cleaned, and ran errands. I also occasionally substituted in the pro shop and on the first tee. But for the purpose of this discussion, the significant fact is that I was also the bartender.
My duties as bartender gave me unlimited access to the alcohol. I stocked the bar, and the beer cooler, and I knew how to make the basic drinks. Nothing fancy, mind you. It wasn't a high volume establishment. It was a small nine-hole golf course in a small town in the midwest, with a small membership. And because we were small, I was basically unsupervised, most of the time. The bar was located out of view, in the kitchen. During less busy times of the day, it would have been very easy to take a drink once in a while. But I was expected to maintain a high standard of behavior, and somehow I did. Perhaps the key question is: How?
During my ten years in that job, I saw a lot of drunkenness, witnessed a lot of taste-testing of beer and smelled a lot of stale beer, and was aware of improper usage of alcohol by a few of the other employees. Because it was a family-owned business, I was taken in as one of the family, and I saw A LOT of inappropriate behavior. College came, and I continued to work there during the summers, and I also worked for a liquor store that their family owned, and my experiences there only reinforced my earlier learning.
My reaction to it all was: Never let myself become infected by that behavior. So I don't drink, smoke, use profane language, do drugs, or engage in certain other behaviors, largely because of the excesses I saw in that early environment. And as a result of my experiences during those years, I forged a steel-hard resolve never to abuse alcohol. I never acquired the habit of drinking, and I was somehow able to resist the social pressure to drink (which is intense, especially for someone who doesn't drink). I can go into a bar and order a coke, and be completely unaware of the presence of alcohol. And I must say, my complete lack of desire for alcohol gives me a deep sense of peace in such environments.
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