The Night Shift

”In vino veritas.”

”In aqua sanitas.”

Before you race to dial up the local plumber, while the amoeba 🦠 are having a field day in your neck of the woods, it pays to pay attention to the hues. In addition, it helps to pay mind to the cues provided they are offered by a truthful and honest soul of a man or woman. To falsely hide one’s opinion eats away at the gut of truth. The narrative spins around with the lies and recollections.

There is no truth like the drunken truth? To a point.

Laugh it off? Sleep it off? Sing a song? Bang a drum? Bang the head against the wall for the umpteenth time? Turn the volume up to drown out the noise and the spirits will come to life. And then some.

Musical motivation of searching for the answers of life’s most pressing problems. One such searcher and seeker was Alcaeus of Mytilene c. 625/620- c. 580 BC.

Alcaeus of Mytilene invented the Altaic stanza. The Altaic stanza is a lyrical meter created on the island of Lesbos and along with his contemporary Sappho, one might say they created a whole new language. The language held within its content hendecasysyllabes, en easy syllables, and an Alcaic decasyllable. (aiwk)

For some, inspiration comes in the form of imbibing. For others, such as the Persians of the time, if they decided something while sober, they made it a rule to reconsider it when they were drunk.

O.k.

Makes logical sense enough, huh. Roman historian, Tacitus described how the Germanic peoples kept counsel at feasts, where they believed drunkenness prevented the participant from dissembling.

O.k.

To feign is the deceive is to pretend is to disregard. So what do mortals do? Bring on the flasks and bottles of the whiskey, gin and tonic of truth and consequences.

There is no truth like the drunken truth.

In warfare, imbibing or not imbibing in certain parts of the world is used as a weapon of mass destruction for some and as a crutch of burying truth for others. Usury ensues and the suit carries on.

Language matters.

Non verbal or verbalized. The Danish believe that truth comes from children and drunk people.

O.k.

The Dutch believe children and drunk people speak the truth.

O.k.

In addition the Danish believe in “wine in the body, heart in the mouth.”

O.k.

Further, the Danish believe, “A drunken mouth speaks from the bottom of the heart.”

O.k.

In English. “What soberness conceals, drunkenness reveals.” In addition to the rhyme nature of the thought, “A drunken mouth speaks man’s words are a sober man’s thoughts.”

O.k.

In Finland, the Finnish believe, “the truth comes from the mouth of a drunkard.”

O.k.

The French believe that truth is to be “what the sober hold in their heart is on the drinker’s tongue.”

O.k.

For the beer drinking Germans, “A drunken mouth reveals the heart’s meaning.”

O.k.

The frozen tundra of Iceland believes ale reveals the inner man.

O.k.

The Spanish believe that after drinking everyone speaks their opinion. “When wine enters, it throws the secret out.”

O.k.

There is no truth like the drunken truth is a rather universal world wide party.I gay include wine, women, song, and most assuredly of man’s fight against the ways and means it has been enveloped into culture and societal “norms.”

Belly up to it? Abstain from the stain it may leave on the carpet.?

I dunno.

Only if called on the carpet, I suppose. Servanthood calls for the peon to “take it like a man” while the person of authority throws anything and everything at them in repeated cruel attempts to undermine their hard won and hardcore credibility.

Vituperation personified.

Ouch. Please pass the bottle…..

It is or may be as simple as telling the truth, whether one can handle it or not. Mark Twain said it as simply as “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.”

True. However Mr. Twain did not live in this century where distractions and reading left to write no longer exist as the first and foremost means of communication.

Focus and distractions walk hand in hand as the insidiously-intruder temptations of enticement who have a seat in the now planes, trains and automobiles of our lives. In our so techy and moderns times, the “help” pretends to be the “help” we all think we NOW need and cannot live without.

Why? To get from here to there.

A new plan of attack as the bugs keep circling and flying ramming into themselves. Instead of joining in the madness, we decide to go it alone. Not at all a bad option provided we know our own insides when the critical “quippers” cannot seem to stop themselves from the onus-throwing.

We must now rely on Twain’s mastery of courage as a way to live a good and honorable life.

”Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.”

And.

”It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.”

Yep.

It is curious. Sad, too.

Vices and virtues can become co-mingled. Perhaps genuisly Alcaeus was on to something so long ago. Instead of “gibberish.” Alcaeus involved himself in political disputes and feuds while expressing meaning through poetry. Alcaeus and his brothers were passionately involved in the struggle of their class and classes.

He was said to have been a man of high spirit and reckless gaiety. A love of country. He and his brothers faced three tyrants who came and went. Melanchrus, Myrsilus, Pittacus would “get in the way” and create havoc. Attempt to stifle their intentions of progress through poetic expression.(wk)

Through it all, Alcaeus journaled his journies with the hope his words as offered would be read and acted upon. Igniting a belief in future fighters to never give up their personally held beliefs such as morality and courage.

Whether or not that included liquid courage is best left to the one holding the bottle in his tight-gripped- hand. Playing keep away from the one intent on using the bottle as a weapon of mass destruction?

Your call.