January 4

I missed posting yesterday, Day 3 of my dry January experience, and in the spirit of being honest about this whole thing, I am not going to go back and “make it up.” What I noticed yesterday was that, still sick with a sinus infection (or whatever this thing is), I had little inclination to drink. I don’t feel well and my taste is off. That said…. I did notice that when I opened the fridge at day’s end to fix dinner, my eyes landed on the various cans of delicious IPA beer hanging out on the bottom shelf. Bell’s Two-Hearted, I’m looking at you. And I thought about whether it’s really a good idea to keep alcohol in the house while you’re doing a dry January? Not sure, but maybe not.

Today, Day 4, I feel firm in my commitment and don’t anticipate an issue. In the past, I’ve kept to a “no drinking Mon-Thurs” schedule and that feels alive for me right now, and is a support.

Today, in doing some reading for my coaching work on the topic of diversity, I came across mention of a soon-to-be-published book, Juicy AF* (Alcohol-Free) and a great review of the book here. What caught my attention was mention of the idea of “alcohol-free” being another aspect of diversity that we might consider. (A podcast interviewing the book’s author about this can be heard here.) I found myself thinking about a situation many years ago at the company I worked for, an after-hours social event on a building rooftop, with drinks and appetizers. My Muslim colleague from Pakistan expressed his frustration to me privately about the lack of non-alcoholic drinks. Today this would likely not happen–a variety of fizzy waters (or at the very least, plain water) would be offered. But–would the person choosing not to drink be felt to belong in a group where most everyone else was drinking? I’m not sure. And it makes me think that at least some of us probably would benefit by noticing what biases and assumptions we might have about people who choose not to drink in social settings.

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