Blackjack And John Barleycorn Poem by Robert R. Railey

Blackjack and John Barleycorn

Here of late, it's in vogue to say that the masses of people that drink alcohol to access, or abuse drugs, or even those of us who are overeaters are to now be classified as addicts
And we are also being asked to include in those numbers all of the other types of addicts such as, gamblers, sex maniacs, people with an obsessive compulsive disorder, and even those of us who occasionally go on extravagant shopping sprees
Though from time to time one might think that the majority of the people that are afflicted with such an ailment would at some point in their lives have a burning desire to stop harming themselves; and one would also hope that they might someday inquire of themselves why they keep repeating those same old disastrous mistakes but expecting different results
Nowadays, however, the experts in the field of addiction are saying that some of the more unfortunate ones that are plagued with these diseases are so completely overwhelmed by their illnesses that they have but two choices: one of which is to go on to the bitter end; and then of course, their second option would be for them to seek professional help for their addictions
On the other hand, though, there are those amongst us who will ask what ever happened to self-control and willpower, and especially since the matter of substance abuse has grown to such epidemic proportions
Nevertheless, it must be gratifying to the poor souls that are suffering terribly with their addictions to learn that many of the modern-day scientists now believe that a certain percentage of the population may have actually been born that way; and, that, they may have even been predestined to succumb to the disease of addiction
The bad news, however, is that many of the suffering addicts will continue to feed their disease by simply trading one addiction for another