Smugness
blogMy first NYE without alcohol in seventeen years was very good, thanks. We stayed in, ate well, and nattered about the last twelve months and the next. Laura, fuelled by three potent Moscow Mules, was rather worse for wear by midnight, her conversation lurching up and down in volume and emotionality. It was interesting to observe and not as alienating as I thought it might be.
I am looking forward to the next month of sobriety. I feel like a scientist on the cusp of a ground breaking discovery. John Moore is also going dry for January. When he was asked what else he would have to live for he replied “smugness”.
This made me gasp. Was I smug? It’s true that I do like to congratulate myself when I have been especially good, but I like to think that I have enough self-awareness to recognize when people are rolling their eyes with disdain.
The trouble with smugness is that it makes all your virtue worthless. People think that if all you are going to do with your extra energy and your clearness of vision is to spout on about how good you feel then what is the point. I suspect that to be a really successful temperance campaigner, you have to forget about it.
What was I talking about again?