We are not alone!

I was wondering, after my adopted son rode down the gate for the second time, what makes people who are really doing well in the world compared to most, 'haak uit' and systematically destroy their lives and those around them in the process by indulging in looking too deep into the bottle. There must be more... to life than this. Substance abuse is a cop-out and everyone, in the surrounding circles that it creates, like a pebble on the water - suffer.

There is this fallacy that 'its my life and I will live it as I please'. Get real, we are not alone. Whatever we do affects others either positively or negatively. Either physically or emotionally. Life is not an island and like it or not we share this planet and we share our lives. We are accountable to those who put their trust in us and open the inner sanctuaries of their minds to us. When we systematically destroy ourselves, it causes driftwood, and this driftwood hurts others.

Every action has a reaction. I remember when I took my Methodist youth to experience Believers baptism. They got filled with the Spirit and spoke in tongues - but they had to return to a Methodist environment. As my long suffering minister said, 'we are all in the canoe together and you are making a small hole in the bottom, and while we try to scoop out the water flooding in you say 'its for the best'. By all means, 'rock the boat' but don't drown us in the process". He had a point.

So young friends - if you really care about people who care for you, think before you leap off the edge into the abyss because you are going to take a lot of casualties with you, and most don't deserve the pain. Think about it, all they did was care enough about you to reach out. How about grabbing their hand that is offered to you and giving life a second chance without using crutches of alcohol and drugs.