FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   >>  
sation of the kind most red-blooded and live men who do things crave consists of joining in barber-shop chords of: "How dry I am! How dry I am! Nobudee knows how dry I am!" _VII: More Time for Other Things_ And there is this great advantage: Your resources for the entertainment of yourself are vastly developed when you do not drink. When you do drink, about all you do is drink--that is, the usual formula, day by day, is to get through work and then go somewhere where there are fellows of your kind and have a few. Now when you do not drink you find there are other things that occur to you as worth while. It is not necessary to hurry to the club or elsewhere to meet the crowd and listen to the newest story, or hear the comment on the day's doings, punctuated by the regular tapping of the bell for the waiter and the pleasing: "What'll it be, boys?" You do that now and then, but you do not do it every day. After mature consideration of the subject I have concluded that the greatest, the most satisfactory, the finest attribute of a non-alcoholic life is the time it gives you to do non-alcoholic things. Time! That is the largest benefit--time to read, to think, to get out-of-doors, to see pictures, to go to plays, to meet and mingle with new people, to do your own work in. A man who has the convivial-drinking habit is put to it on occasions to find time for anything but conviviality aside from his regular occupation. It seems imperative to him that he shall get where the crowd is, and stay there. He might miss something--a drink maybe, or two, or a laugh, or a yarn, or the pleasures of association with folks he likes. These are important when visualized alcoholically. They make up the most of that kind of a life. Do not understand that I am deprecating these pleasures. I am not. I have already explained how strenuously I worked out a program that enables me to enjoy them now and then; but the fact that I have quit drinking makes them incidental to the general scheme instead of the whole scheme. It gives me an opportunity to pick and choose a bit. It relieves me of the necessity of being at the same places at the same time every afternoon or evening. Whereas I used to be the boss and John Barleycorn the foreman, I have now discharged John and am both boss and foreman; and I run the game to suit myself and have time for other things. Let me impress that on you--the glory and gladness of time! It requires rat
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   >>  



Top keywords:
things
 

alcoholic

 
drinking
 

regular

 
pleasures
 
scheme
 
foreman
 

alcoholically

 

visualized

 

occasions


conviviality

 

important

 

occupation

 

association

 

imperative

 

afternoon

 

evening

 

requires

 

Whereas

 

places


choose

 

relieves

 

necessity

 

Barleycorn

 
discharged
 
gladness
 

opportunity

 

explained

 

strenuously

 

worked


program

 
understand
 
deprecating
 

enables

 

general

 

incidental

 

impress

 

concluded

 

developed

 
vastly

resources
 
entertainment
 

formula

 

fellows

 
advantage
 

consists

 

joining

 

barber

 

sation

 
blooded