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Drunkards know no danger is a Ukrainian proverb, which I know Ukrainians and non-Ukrainians alike would relate to, easily, since alcoholism is a universal social ill.
“What has the proverb and the story of drunkards to do with the focus of this blog?” you might ask.
The reason is that it contains lessons of a lifetime cum advice.
To know what the lessons are, I urge you to read the following story, which I’m about to share with you, here, from the beginning to the end.
Here goes my story!
When I was growing up as a little boy in my town there was a notorious drunkard in my neighbourhood.
His real name was Okeke Onwuegbuzie, but everybody, both the old and the young, called him “Mmanya-ike,” which in my language, translates to ‘strong drink.’
The reason he was nicknamed Mmanya-ike, according to my grandmother, was because he loved alcoholic drinks a lot, especially the locally brewed white gin, popularly known as ‘ogogoro’ in different parts of Nigeria.
I was also told, by my grandmother, that Mmanya-ike preferred alcoholic drinks to any kind of food.
Painfully, the drunkard was a handsome man by nature; six-feet tall, dark in complexion, and neither thin nor fat, but his ugly habit made him look older than his age.
Apart from his fine physical outlook, he was generally loved for his gift of honesty and hard work.
He was simply a likeable fellow, but he was drunk, and all those who knew and loved him would become disappointed in him.
One of such disgraceful moments of his, which I remember as yesterday, took place one particular Saturday evening, after the wedding reception of the son of one of his elder uncles.
He attended the event in a sparkling white and beautiful Nigerian attire with a cap and a pair of new shoes to match.
Immediately after the party was declared open by the chairman of the occasion, Mmnaya-ike’s uncle, the father of the groom, instructed one of the women in charge of giving out food and drinks to guests, to make sure she served Mmanya-ike enough food and drinks.
That assured Mmanya-ike of a good time to come.
Before the party could go halfway, Mmanya-ike had taken enough food and bottles of beer, which he combined with some glasses of spirit and wine.
Not too long after that, he became heavily inebriated and ended up falling asleep on his chair, until the end of the event.
While he was still sleeping, after every other guest had left the place, the manager of the venue of the event woke him and requested him to leave, so that he could lock the place and close it for the day’s job.
Following that appeal, Mmanya-ike stood unsteadily and staggered out of the place and headed for home, stopping at irregular intervals, on the way, to catch his breath.
One of the places he stopped at, for that purpose, was in front of an open playing field, where came to play.
As he stood and swerved, from side to side, like a tree being blown around by a stormy wind, some of the children who were playing on the field suddenly noticed that Mmanya-ike had urinated on his trousers and started booing him.
The noise of those children attracted, to the place, other sets of children who were playing elsewhere, and all of them joined and booed and taunted him ignominiously.
Passers-by who watched the children make a mockery of him could not help but shook their heads in disbelief.
One of those passers-by tried to stop the children from making more fun of him, but he could not do so, as the vicious and defiant children continued enjoying themselves.
After catching his breath, at that point, Mmanya-ike left and continued his journey back home.
The biggest drama of the day took place at the point where he crossed a very busy road to the other side that led to his house.
When he got there, he sauntered into the road, without watching whether there was an oncoming vehicle.
He had hardly gone half the road when a fast-speeding car screeched several times while trying to avoid killing him.
“You this foolish drunkard, you have come again,” barked a man who witnessed as the driver of the car made several attempts not to kill Mmanya-ike. “Do you want to commit suicide?”
“Why did you attempt to cross this busy road without watching whether a vehicle was coming or not?” he added.
After several minutes of being rebuked by members of the crowd that gathered to know what happened, the drunkard looked sideways and said, to nobody in particular: “Is it only me who should be watching the road before crossing? Can’t drivers also watch the road while speeding?”
Mmanya-ike escaped death, by a whisker, that day.
He almost lost his life because of his foolish love for alcohol, which prevented him from recognizing the danger of crossing the road carelessly.
Apart from the physical risk that Mmmanya-ike usually caused for himself, whenever he was drunk, excessive alcohol intake alcoholism has also caused him to say things that put him in danger, without knowing it.
In other words, alcoholism puts drunkards into danger, either by bringing them into contact with things that could harm them physically or by causing them to say unprintable things, which they later regret when they are no more under the control of alcohol.
What are the lessons in the foregoing story?
There are two major lessons that are contained in this story.
Lesson #1: Most people who are under the influence and control of alcohol do not recognize the danger and the consequences that such a situation causes them; and
Lesson #2: We shouldn’t enmesh or get yourselves involved with binge drinking which causes the mind to be beclouded and unable to recognize danger and its consequences, including shame, embarrassment, and possibly, death.
Taking note of these lessons would guide and help us to avoid alcoholism that makes us easily prone to danger while beclouding our minds from recognizing those dangers and their consequences, as was the case with Mmanya-ike.
Drunkards know no danger. THE END.
By John Uchemefune. John Uchemefune is a retired public speaker and commentator based in Lagos, Nigeria.
PS: If you would like to share your life experiences for others to learn from, please, let us know via our contact page.
