Criticism - positive or negative?

Run your fingers through my soul.

For once, just once, feel exactly what I feel,

believe what I believe, perceive as I perceive,

look, experience, examine, and for once;

just once, understand.

Those words may seem controversial to you.  We all have our own problems so why should we take the time to care about others?  That is all and well but is negative criticism of others necessary if you haven’t taken the time to understand?  I have learned that before I can judge another, I need to walk a mile in their shoes.

I read a blog post the other day where the writer was slandering a woman, who has an alcohol problem, for drinking and driving with teenagers in the car.  It started me thinking on how many times I had to take my own children to functions or school and the only way I could get out of the house and do this was to have a drink to calm the tremors.  I was fortunate, by the Grace of God, that nothing terrible happened and I never got a dui either.  When I look back on those terrifying years, it was the only way I could cope with a disease that had consumed my mind, body and soul. 

Yes, alcoholism has been medically classified as a disease.  Like Aids, people tend to shy away from alcoholics and deem them to be the dregs of the earth, the unsavoury.  When we take the example of drinking and driving – I agree that it is totally irresponsible – but there are normal people that drink too much at a party and get behind the wheel of a car.  What about those who are driving while texting on their cell phones or the mental health sufferers who are under the influence of large doses of Valium or other heavy drugs? 

An alcoholic has to choose recovery on their own desperate terms.  In the long term, forceful rehabilitation actions will not help them but there are a couple of things you can do to make yourself a little less resentful: 

1.  Drinking and driving – tell your children and their friends not to get into any car where you suspect the person has been drinking - drive them yourself.

2.  Resentments – show a little more tolerance for the person involved by encouraging them not to drive with others or at all when under the influence.

3.  Presence – it is your responsibility, if you care enough, to take the car keys away from someone under the influence – friends do not let friends drink and drive.

4.  Concern – if you are sincerely worried about whether a person is an alcoholic, tell them your concerns and let their friends and family know.

5.  Educate – read and learn about alcoholism – you might change your perspective.

6.  Practice what you preach – don’t drink under the influence of any mind altering substances either.

7.  Judge not, less you be judged. 

You know the saying – when a dog is down, kick it.  Well I have known how it feels to be there.  Alcoholics are generally beautiful people with emotional defects that have risen out of their pasts.  Don’t pick on the hopeless.  This world is in a mess with war, economic instability, hunger and poverty which has all been influenced by the greatest addictions of all:  Power, Greed and Corruption. 

I am sure you all have some thoughts of your own on this subject, so please voice your opinions.  We need to strive to make the world a better place for all.

“To love means loving the unlovable.

To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable.

Faith means believing the unbelievable.

Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.”

G. K. Chesterton