One of my iLand friends had recently celebrated Wet Day. When I chided him for that he told me that he celebrated Wet Day with Coke as in Coca Cola. Can’t help but believe him. As I read his comment, my mind veered to a passage in Scott Peck’s 'The Road Less Travelled’. It records an interview between a sergeant in the army stationed in Okinawa, who was in serious trouble because of his excessive drinking and the psychiatrist. The psychiatrist asked:

“Do you like to read in the evening instead of drinking?”

“Oh yes, I like to read, sure.”

“Then why don’t you read in the evening instead of drinking?”

“It’s too noisy to read in the barracks.”

“Well, why don’t you go to the library?”

“The library is too far away.”

“Is the library farther than the bar you go to?”

“Well, I’m not much of a reader. That’s nowhere my interests lie.”

“Do you like to fish?” I then inquired.

“Sure, I love to fish.”

“Why not go fishing instead of drinking?”

“Because I have to work all day long.”

“Can’t you go fishing at night?”

“No, there isn’t any night fishing in Okinawa.”

“But there is,” I said, “I know of several organizations that fish at night here. Would you like me to put you in touch with them?”

“Well, I really don’t like to fish.”

“What I hear you saying,” I clarified, “is that there are other things to do in Okinawa except drink, but the thing you like to do most in Okinawa is drink.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“But your drinking is getting you into trouble, so you’re faced with a real problem, aren’t you?”

“This damn island would drive anyone to drink.”

Whoa!!! I can see many ‘occasional’ and ‘habitual’ drinkers becoming red with anger. “How dare Jissy reveal my secret?” Cool down friends. I have not written this story. On second thought, though, are we all not like the drunkard in the story? How many times have we hidden our inner self just to gain something, trying to show people what we are not? May be, a promotion is due or it’s just that we want to be in the good books of others. Net result is that we keep on compromising. We do things which we would never have done otherwise. But for how long? Like the drunkard, at times, we tend to get entangled in the web that we weave, the web of deceit.

WARNING : TOO MUCH OF DRINKING IS HARMFUL FOR HEALTH.