Sobriety
A state of mind that ensures the safe progress of your life via the vehicle of good, conscious decisions that either directly or indirectly affect your wellbeing. A sober mind protects, corrects and makes the right choice in the present due to it’s ability to project. Project the consequences of a right or wrong decision and reconcile itself with them by weighing up the pros and cons of forging ahead with any particular endeavour. As a society, we encourage the use of a sober mind to steer and move our lives forward. The choice of which career path to follow, whether to wear a seatbelt or not, three sugars or one, who to marry, which political party to vote for; all these and other life-affecting decisions are all decisions that should be made with a sober mind. Or at least that’s what we’re told.
I have never been drunk before so please do not mistake this for a campaign encouraging the use of alcohol as a way of dealing with life’s most pressing issues, no. I am simply presenting a somewhat strange social conundrum.
Because while we are encouraged to use a sober mind to make big decisions we are also often encouraged to use an intoxicated mind to celebrate them. Strange, right?. The very thing that can derail your chance of success is later used to celebrate it. And that’s essentially the problem isn’t it: the right thing at the wrong time, is still the wrong thing. Ice cream is great; it tastes good, feels good on your palette, and as far as I know, ice cream has never killed anyone. However, having ice cream at below zero temperatures while you battle bronchitis probably isn’t a good idea. On the flip, having ice cream on a hot summers Mafikeng-day? Perfect. The effects of ice cream are changed by two things: time and purpose. Ice cream at 1pm in Mafikeng in summer is great because it serves the purpose of cooling you down. Ice cream while you’re in hospital fighting a disease that could kill you will only serve to aggravate the case and kill you...
