Alcoholism sneaks up on you.  It becomes rooted in your family and winds its way through your DNA and out of your mouth and into your words.  It branches out of your fingers to pick up the glasses and bottles.  It blossoms in your brain to affect your decisions and perceptions.

It leaves its leaves in your conscience like spiked thorns that prick at you, but its sap smooths the edges over and allows you to think that your actions are one thing and not another.

It breeds from generation to generation and is watered by the approval of family, friends and social groups.  Its heavy aroma blocks the disapproval of your conscience and that of others.

Its insidiousness allows you to hurt yourself and others and flourishes in your feeble attempts to control what can’t be controlled.

That is, until the day that the sap begins to dry up…