Essential Snobbery 101: Drunk in traipse

Walk all ways

There are arresting circumstances under observation that sometimes elevates a person’s reluctant capacity to sententiousness, and it behoves one to entertain the thought process, even if nothing is eventually committed to journaling.

In this case, one could already see from afar that the man one first thought was young, naïve, quite unsteady on his feet; for whilst his direction was forward, there was no line to how his gait had lost the acuity of coherence that would suggest any sobriety. This is to be totally distinguished from where a person might by reason of infirmity be less disposed to display essential or required coordination.

Jolt clear ahead

By the time, one was level with him, and one had to swiftly move along lest his footfalls give way to an ill-considered collision; he was trying to light a cigarette, which he successfully accomplished, and one could infer that this man was middle-aged or older.

At two pedestrian crossings, concern engendered one’s disposition that this endangered species of auto-inebriation was courting the boundaries of casualty, but he did come through unscathed until a sudden clatter, he had walked into a temporary road sign and fallen somewhat on his backside providing the necessary jolt to the senses that might have helped bring some alertness to his stupor, for soon after, either out of caution or embarrassment, he steadied himself better towards his destination.

Better than who?

The question that percolated in one’s mind all through this sordid spectacle was how anyone could not know when they have had enough to drink such that they have sated their thirst for alcohol without being either a public nuisance or a safety risk in a public place? It is a question that always baffles, for, at the second of tipsy, one is homeward bound.

One should be sober, coherent, coordinated, and able to put one foot in front of the other. All mishaps to happen in the confines of the home, every time, all the time, and one has only once ever been given to alcohol-induced emesis at home, the only silly thing about it was it should have been done in the toilet bowl rather than in the sink.

Yet, people would do what they would do, and people like us would walk by pondering, much holier than thou in that and probably not in another. We should take the pharisaic trophies that are handed to us without much exertion. On to the next moral challenge.