Lack of Inhibition Brings Community

Driving home from work this afternoon

I was struck by the realization that I have never missed being drunk (I stopped drinking several years ago) but I did miss the conversation that stemmed from the lack of inhibitions that drinking brought. I fondly recall times when I would sit at a friends house around a firepit until two or three AM, just talking about our thoughts and what what we thought made us feel this way and that. We would share things after most people had gone inside to escape the cold, and a few would remain outside, huddled around a dying fire with our freezing fingers clutched to a glass of whiskey we had been nursing the last half hour. I can’t speak for the others, but I miss that sort of thing so much. I feel like I’ve lost a connection with the hearts of others. Some key that unlocked the ability to share things that we wouldn’t have otherwise has been thrown away. But, there were nasty things behind that door as well, so it would be irresponsible of me to sort through the tall grass to find it. I miss the connection that, for better or worse, the lack of inhibitions unlocked. For a short hour or two, hearts and minds felt closer together, just on the other side of a wall or thin sheet instead of in a different house.