Though I love a frosty glass of ale now and then, I'll never forget how much I hated my first beer. The scene was pretty typical: I was a teenager at a party, someone handed me a bottle of cheap brew, and I cracked it open and took a sip -- more out of curiosity than anything. The taste, I remember, was so bitter that I barely choked it down. Many grimacing gulps later, I wandered into a bedroom and collapsed for a nap.
Even as my tolerance -- and my palate -- have matured over the years, I've always found it curious that we humans are so dedicated to developing a (literal) taste for the beautiful in the midst of the revolting. A few drinks tend to summon happy feelings; no question -- but that doesn't entirely account for the Scotch aficionado's rapture when tasting rare barrels -- or for a cigar buff's love of a smooth Cuban smoke. Connoisseurs are known to cross oceans and dodge laws to taste their favorite products -- which would be silly if all they were after was a pleasant buzz.
That's not to say, of course, that cultivated taste can't lead to addiction -- which is why some folks with a lot of time and money on their hands have a tendency to spend some time in rehab clinics, and why we have so many organizations devoted to helping people find residential treatment centers. Though chemicals can offer us all sorts of pleasures, a chemical addiction can turn just about any hobby into a compulsion -- whether that hobby is drinking, gambling or (by some accounts) even romance.
Residential treatment facility, addiction, drinking, and gambling are just some of the many terms associated with social life. These words make my ears just so tired of listening as they have always been there, never solved. In fact, they seem to be socially accepted norms.
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