麻豆约拍

Good Morning. In my thirteenth year I sat in front of the fire one evening with my father. I liked to sit up with him when everyone else had gone to bed, and all was quiet.

On this evening he asked me what I thought of drinking. In Ireland this only means the drinking of alcohol. I wasn鈥檛 sure really. I did know that I didn鈥檛 like the taste of drink.

My father said that I would have to make a choice at some stage to drink or not to drink. He, a teetotal all his life, said he chose not to drink for religious reasons and also because there was alcoholism in the family. He didn鈥檛 know if it was a scientific fact that alcoholism ran in families but some said it did and he didn鈥檛 want to take the risk. He wanted to be responsible to my mother and to his children, and to be a good citizen. He couldn鈥檛 do this if he developed cravings he might lose control of, and he thought that he had a personality that could become dependent, so he chose to refrain.

Having said that he recognised many people could drink moderately, and that a sip of wine was good for the digestion. The choice was mine. He knew I would soon come under pressure from friends to have a drink, and wanted me to make an informed choice. I remain impressed by his broadminded approach and the trust he placed in me to make my own choice. I also chose to refrain.

I pray that we all get the chance to make good choices, to be shown the choices, to respect others choices, and to offer others as broad a range of choice as our trust allows. Hare Krishna.