Above the Waterline

With a long weekend ahead, we will spend some time as a family travelling into Estonia, which sounds fancy in some way, but really isn't if you are in Finland. It is a couple hours by ferry and Finns have been going there for many years, before they learned English and were comfortable travelling other places also. Many still go there for a couple days, most of them just to buy some cheaper alcohol.

There won't be much drinking for us.

Although I think I will enjoy a glass of wine or two with dinners, since I don't have to drive, nor do I have to wake up in the morning. My family have never been big drinkers and while I have had my fair share (especially when younger), it has never been a "thing" for me. I think it was because I started drinking so young.

I was 12.

At least when I was a kid, it was okay to drink at a restaurant for instance, if with a parent, so my mother would occasionally let me have a scotch and coke with dinner. While this sounds like terrible parenting, my parents didn't actually drink either, though occasionally my mother would have some white wine at a restaurant. What this ended up doing for me, was ensuring that I saw responsible drinking and it took all the special out of it. As a result, I don't think I have ever said "I was so drunk on the weekend" to my friends, like they did when we were fifteen.

The first time I was drunk, I was 16.

However, while this took the "special" out of drinking, when it came to treat food, that was always kept out of reach. It was very rare in our household, which I think is one of the reasons it took on a "special" status in my life, probably adding a few extra sweet teeth into my mouth. When there is a treat, eat it.

Especially with older brothers in the mix.

While I am no expert, in my limited experience, restriction doesn't work to actually restrict usage. Prohibition for instance was applied in Finland and alcohol distribution is very restricted still (it is a monopoly owned by the government), but instead of limiting usage, there are a lot of alcoholics. It is almost socially acceptable to be an alcoholic here. People are drinking a bit less now in the younger generations though, which is a good thing.

I remember hearing a phrase "what you deny, you empower" where the energy used to hold something back, effectively provides that same energy to that thing. This is why willpower usually fails most people, because it takes energy and when it is depleted, there is nothing left to hold the denial back any more and the flood gates open. This is also why so many people will give into their vices when they are tired.

I know I do.

If there was some kind of tracker, I wonder what it would look like to see a rundown of where our energy goes. It would be interesting to get a report on it and discover just where we spend our attention, and how much opportunity there is to do something else. There are trackers for phones that show screen time usage, and it seems that the people who will use them the least, are those who spend the most time on relatively useless activities, like scrolling social platforms. For most countries, the average usage is in the few hours a day on social media range.

Is it an addiction?

Just for a hypothetical, think about what someone might look like if they spent a couple hours a day in a gym. Or if you wanted to learn a new skill, how much you'd expect to improve if you dedicated a couple of hours a day to it for years on end. And this is the thing - it has been years now and for some people, they have grown up with a screen constantly in their face, making it appear normal that this is the way to spend time.

I spend a lot of time in front of a screen.

I should get away more and over the next few days, that is what I am going to do. Though, I am not going to be away completely, because I will still write an article daily for Hive, and likely edit some photos that I take of our travels. I am looking forward to being outside with the camera, though the weather is likely to be cold and rainy. Who knows, maybe there will b e some moody shots of the old town possible.

For now though, I have to finish up some work tasks and then pack.