I’m a pretty big fan of Tullamore Dew Irish Whiskey and I’ll drop a bomb into a pint of Guinness whenever somebody’s buying. I’ve got a Flogging Mollys CD and five or six by The Dropkick Murphys, who I’ve seen twice in concert. I enjoy a nice Irish pub, especially late in the evening when everybody gets rowdy and starts singing. The rendition of “Wild Rover” myself, my wife, and our friends Chris and Kathleen performed from atop a bar in Florida a few years back was legendary.
But I have no use for St Patrick’s Day. Today we celebrate the life of a guy who converted the Irish pagans to Christianity in the early 1700s. Apparently, he used a four leaf clover to explain the Holy Trinity, but I confess this makes little mathematical sense to me. People of actual Irish origin use the day to celebrate their heritage. Lots of others use it as an excuse to wear green clothes and get loaded.
Obviously, an anti-drinking post on a blog titled “Musings of a Thirsty Daddy” is going to come across somewhat hypocritical.
I have no problems with drinking itself. There are many things that are just simply better with beer. Watching football, playing pool, mowing the lawn. I enjoy sipping on a nice bourbon and sprite or three after the kids go to bed.
What I rarely do anymore is get drunk, which is something completely different. Getting drunk is what I used to do. This is when “stupid shit” gets done, of which I’ve had my share. There are bar fights, arguments, “watch this” moments when you tell somebody to “hold my beer” and carry the scars twenty years later.
Luckily I was pretty successful at avoiding the stupidest, which is driving when drunk. For a teenage boy, there is no faster way to ruin the rest of your, or somebody else’s, life.
Kayla is not a teenage boy. Statistics vary, but the general idea is that in at least 50% of sexual assaults, the victim is intoxicated. The numbers coming out of college campuses these days makes me wonder how any father allows his daughter to go.
Right now she has a very negative attitude towards alcohol, as do some of her closest friends, for a variety of reasons. To my knowledge, she’s never experimented with alcohol and I hope this continues for as long as possible. She’s not currently allowed to ride in cars with other teenagers and in six years or so when that policy changes they will be subjected to random breathalyzer testing. She’ll be staying home on St Patrick’s Day and New Year’s Eve.
Tonight I’m only working at the hospital until 9:00, so chances are I’ll miss most of the drunken revelers that will surely be telling each other to “hold my beer” and making their way to the Emergency Room. When I get home chances are good that I’ll raise a pint to Lucky the Leprechaun or whoever the hell this day is for.
But my fifteen-year-old daughter will be staying home.
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Originally published on Musings of a Thirsty Dad
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