You Must Be Drunk if You Think I’m Sticking to Dry January
Sobriety after an attempted coup is just too much to ask
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I started my day crying tears of joy to my therapist about Democrats taking over the Senate and ended it watching a coup attempt in real time. As my heart raced and cortisol shot through my veins, the only thing I could think of was, “Damn, I need a drink.”
Like many other Americans, I’m trying my best to adhere to a Dry January. It’s a way to clean my corporeal slate and start the year off right. But the year isn’t starting off right. I can’t even celebrate Warnock and Ossoff’s wins because domestic terrorists erected a noose around what is known in Black circles as “Chocolate City.” I hear glass breaking on national television and I see President Trump, in spite of all the violence, still saying that the election was fraudulent. Now is not the time to be sober.
I vented on Twitter about wanting a freebie for this horrific day and many people commented to me about breaking it. Writers, artists, professors, and all those in between are joining me on social media in giving up on a Dry January because something has to give. Our bodies have been under duress for so long during this administration. We’ve been separated from our communities for so long because of a global pandemic that could’ve been under control if our leaders gave more of a damn.
Maybe in simpler times, restrictions would be easier to uphold, like in a regular January where an insurrection wasn’t happening and over 300,000 souls hadn’t succumbed to a deadly virus. But we aren’t in those times. So drink up. We should imbibe to grease our engines and put our fiery neurons to rest at least for the night. Tomorrow is another day, and we can do challenges when we aren’t already being physically and psychologically challenged enough.
