Shakespeare's Hamlet lacks the will to take charge of his life and it ends badly for him. Shall we wander aimlessly through life in a fog of indecision? Or make clear-headed choices about our happiness. That is the question.
• A century ago, using opium may have seemed like a good thing but unfortunately it turns you into a zombie.
• The original formula for Coca-Cola contained cocaine, which is quite a pick-me-up but leads to anxiety, paranoia and hallucinations.
• For 40 years after its discovery, radioactive radium was added to face cream, lipstick, tonic water and even suppositories. Maybe it had some benefits but it also caused a variety of cancers.
• Cigarettes: pleasure, focus, emphysema, cardiac failure, cancer.
But in the pantheon of wonderful things that turn out to be not so wonderful, alcohol is king. About half of us use it. We think it makes us happy. It doesn't.
If I worked on Madison Avenue, here's the ad I would write for alcohol:
Life just too hard? Things not going your way? Can't get no respect? Not having enough fun? No need to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Pick up a bottle of tasty, nutritious ethanol. Just one sip and you'll be smart, good looking, rich, important, and sexy, and having the time of your life. The fast and easy way to a full and rewarding life!
Sounds ridiculous when you say it that way. What halfway-intelligent person believes that happiness can be bought bottled or canned at the corner store? Yet we drink because we believe exactly that.
Just because you think you're intelligent, attractive, powerful and happy doesn't mean you are. Alcohol puffs you full of delusions that, among other things, warp your judgment about alcohol itself. But if you drink, perhaps there's a part of you, a ghostly voice, telling you that something is rotten in Denmark, if you will only listen.
Don't end up like Hamlet. Act now. Stop drinking away your happiness.
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