Thoughts on Drinking

As we were leaving the Airmen's Club, Jake and his friends noticed a buddy of theirs who was incredibly drunk. They asked me if we could use my car to take him back to his room, because there was no way he would be able to walk. I said that it was no problem.
Once everyone piled in the car, and the drunk guy was sitting securely in the passenger seat, I started driving back to the barracks. Within ten seconds, a noxious smell filled the car. "Did someone crap themselves?" I asked.
Everyone in the back seat screamed and howled, and the drunk guy laughed as we all rushed to roll down the windows as soon as possible. A general laughter followed, as everyone (including the drunk guy) swore that they weren't the cause of the over-powering, rank smell. It was painfully obvious, however, that the drunk guy had crapped himself.
Within a few minutes we were back at the barracks, and everyone got out of the car and took the drunk guy to his room. I waited in the car and checked for possible racing stripes on my seat cover.
I wondered about the drunk fellow. The other guys had inferred that he gets himself similarly drunk every weekend. 'What for?' I wondered. 'If drinking is an escape, what is he trying to escape? If this happens every weekend, then he must feel that he can't escape it, right?'

The situation reminded me of Otis, a recurring character on The Andy Griffith Show. Otis is constantly bamboozled, hungover, or a little bit of both. He is such a regular at the jail that he often walks in after a hard night of drinking and locks himself up in a cell. Even though the show is supposed to be a comedy, and Otis is always treated as a comedic figure, one can't help but realize the stark reality of Otis' situation.

Much like Otis, this young man is probably a perpetual comedic figure, whose drunken antics most likely mask a very troubled life from our eyes, just like the alcohol does to his. I really hope someone cares enough about him to see past it.

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