Saturday, April 29, 2006

The Mouthwash Experiment

I was thinking tonight of my mouthwash experiment earlier this week. What stupidity would drive me to do such a thing? I was looking at the back of the empty bottle a moment ago noting all the various “antiseptic” chemicals that are supposed to kill germs and freshen my breath and mouth. All I could think of was the millions of liver cells I destroyed and cleansed out of my system in the process.

I mainly wanted to walk in the shoes of these interesting characters I write about. How can one man understand another man’s alcoholic dilemma if he never walks a day in his shoes? What would ever drive a man to do such a thing as drink mouthwash? Alcoholism, that is.

My father often told me tales of his uncles becoming so desperate for alcohol that they would drink nail polish remover and vanilla extract. I always thought he was just crafting tall tales about his uncles; tales to scare a young child into refraining from the substance in later years. Now, I see he was telling the truth.

The sad truth is that alcoholics will do anything to get their fix even if it means a quick end of life much as the iceheads and crackheads with guant eyes and sad faces I see inhabiting the rundown majority minority neighborhood near my house. Alcohol is just as much as a destructive drug and can be abused just as easily as those drugs we have been so brainwashed into beliving are so illegal and detrimental to us. But you can buy alcohol on almost any street corner in this small town I live in. Clerks will sell it to you with a smile and “Have a nice day!”

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