The Bastard in the Bottle

9.27.2008
Today I saw a print in a shop window. It was the outline of a whiskey jug, with words written on the side: "sad, happy, horny, sad." The words were stacked on the bottle, and it was about one quarter full, right before the treacherous fall back into sadness that drunkenness makes inevitable.

For me, it was the first time to see this truth acknowledged so openly. As a society, we have a nearly devotional respect for alcohol. It's a fixture at nearly every gathering, it's consumed in great quantities, and it's thought to be the cure for what ails us. Yet this last part is nothing but a myth. We all know no amount of beers can cure any problems. We're all sharply aware of the way an intoxicated person acts and the buffoonery that results. Yet we keep going around drinking our beers and expecting, somehow, that a "good buzz" will some how, this time, fix everything. Yet it enhances our malaise and strips us of our ability to deal with our problems rationally. Worse, it robs us of time better used some other way.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

So the question is, why have we locked ourselves in this pattern? Why do we continue to spend our whole weekend getting drunk? Why do we pretend that alcohol has magical properties it will never possess? Really, why are we so dishonest with ourselves about booze, and why can no one talk about this? Our tacit refusal to recognize the obvious is hurting us all, at least in my small, art-school corner of the world.

But still, I will raise my glass with all my friends tonight at another meaningless house party. What else can I do?

WOAH New Blog Time!

9.23.2008
Everyone! No One! Whoever! Thanks for reading, and welcome to the Sunset Crash and Burn Medley Blog, a collection of topical discourse mixed with the emotional reality of living in the modern world. What this actually means: I'm the kind of person who sees things, gets an opinion, and wants to tell the world.

But why am I different than the average blogger? Its all about the lens. And let me explain that.

My lens focuses differently than the rest of the world, I believe. I have lived my life attempting to extract meaning from the world as fully as I can, to wring as much out of it as possible; this is how I believe I will live a full life. The only goal I have to experience everything as deeply as possible. In living this way, I see things differently than most people I know. This unique viewpoint is interesting to you, and I can be your new friend. See, it can be like a friendship without dealing with the odd parts. I'll give you the low-down on how I see the world, as intimately and meaningfully as possible, and you can soak it up, think about it, and do what you will. Maybe you'll ignore it. Or maybe you'll ask questions. Or maybe you'll think I'm on to something.

And I promise you right now that I will always be honest with you.

But I'm not the only one with a lens that focuses differently, of course. In some way, we all are. Which is why I want the people who read this to tell me what they think, to comment and chime in as part of a discourse. If I'm a jackass, say it, please. But also tell me if I just got you really deep.

I won't pretend to know it all, but I do think I've got an interesting way of seeing things. I hope you see it that way too.

All the Best,
Alex Rudinski
An Explorer of the Ever-Expanding Realm of Consciousness