Articles Written By Dale Lee

Learn More To Do More Project


Why I Do Not Drink Alcoholic Beverages©



I was sharing a meal with Ed in a motel’s restaurant in Overland Park, Kansas. Ed and I were being considered for positions at our company’s headquarters. He and I were employed by different subsiaries of the company. We met a couple of day earlier and were being considered for different jobs.

While waiting for our food, Ed surprised me with a question. He asked me why I did not drink and was it for religious reasons? I was stunned, because I had no idea how he knew that I did not drink. At that time I was not thinking that he and I were part of a group that went out to eat several times as part of the corporate staff’s effort to evaluate people in social settings. I did not realize how close I was being watched.

I told him that as a young teenager I had gone with my father, a pastor, to take food and clothes to people that were in financial bad shape. Two common things I noticed at the houses were the adults smoked cigarettes and drank beer. I wondered about how could these adults spend money on cigarettes and beer instead of food for their children and themselves. I did not understand this fact.

I had asked my father about why did the church give the families food when the adults could buy food if they stopped smoking and drinking. He said that the church gives food to help the children. We are not trying to help the adults. Yes, the adults spend their money in ways that was not in the best interest of the family, but we cannot stop that. The children cannot help the way their parents act. I reached the decision that I was not going to drink and smoke.

One thing I did know is that I was not going to financially hurt my future family by spending money on liquor and cigarettes. Drinking has not been a part of my adult life. Yes, I have struggled with the social pressure of not being a drinker when I would attend company functions, friends’ parties, business trips, and single adult dating life. I have not regretted the decision made as a teenager.


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Date last changed: 12-28-2007