OK so starter for ten: The following lyric is from which song?
‘They’re sharing a drink they call loneliness / But it’s better than drinking alone…’
Answer at end of post. Scroll down there now if you can’t be arsed with a squiffy widow’s random ruminations on above quote.
In fact, my daughter, aged 5, selected this CD today out of a collection of thousands. (Mine amount to around twenty, the rest were His). We listened to it in the car and I was struck by the lyric, as I have been struck by many a song lyric since M died.
This tune involves barflies congregating around a piano, conjoined in mutual melancholia. It’s also a song about drinking, which has become as much a feature of my life as brushing my teeth and a morning brew.
The thing is – everyone is going through their own shit. I’ve lost my husband, I’m never going to see Him again. This has become my life and my eternal sorrow.
But I have come to recognise that my loss is relative to what everyone else is going through. People are fielding blows of their own. One friend has just found out her sister has cancer. Another’s boyfriend is on bail. Someone else is facing redundancy. My Dad visits my Grandpa in the care home every single day in bewilderment that the formidable character he knew and loved is now solely preoccupied by Kit-Kats.
We all invariably end up in the pub discussing and sharing our woes.
But it’s better than drinking alone, right?
I was actually drinking a gin and tonic when I hit play on the video. I realize the metaphoric lyric refers to an emotional state but it did give me pause to wonder if it counts as not drinking alone if you’re hanging out with only your house pets?
That is definitely drinking in company. Continue as you were! X