DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE

We all know that driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, which, of course, is a drug, is both illegal and immoral. It is illegal. It is the law. One can be arrested, jailed and made to pay a fine if one is apprehended driving under such an influence. It is also immoral because one is needlessly putting one’s own life and the life of other innocent people in one’s hands while driving so impaired.

Yet driving under the influence of drugs of any kind is not the only manner in which the way we drive can be impaired and thus dangerous both to others and to ourselves. Driving under the influence of a cell phone that seems to demand our immediate attention even though the message that that phone will impart is almost always a message that can wait, that is not life-threatening, certainly not as life-threatening as talking on the phone while driving down the road, that, too is almost immoral and, perhaps, soon to become against the law as well. It goes without saying that texting and driving is probably the most dangerous of all.

If my parents were alive today, my Mom would assert that my Dad drove under the influence of ice cream. She often said that there was not an ice cream stand around that did not beckon to him when he was on the road. He always seemed to be on the lookout for one. In truth, my siblings and I appreciated that addiction because it meant that when his addiction directed him to such a location, we would be the happy beneficiaries. Our only regrets were that it did not happen more often than it did.

It was a good thing that there were and are no laws against driving under the influence of ice cream or, in my case, driving under the influence of chocolate. For me, if that craving-for-chocolate gene kicks in and I am on the road, my attention wanders and I am on the lookout for the next place to stop to feed that addiction. It is not a pretty sight. It is also an addiction that I will fight for the rest of my life. Again, the only consolation is that I cannot be arrested for such an addiction and driving under its influence.

On the other hand, would it not be wonderful if we all both would and could not only drive but live under the influence of our faith, be addicted to living out our lives as we know our faith demands of us? Not only would be not drink and drive or text and drive or talk on the phone and drive, we would always respect the lives of everyone we encounter wherever we encounter them as well as our own lives.

We would also not allow anything, even ice cream or chocolate, money, success or pleasure to so control our lives that we do unto others and even unto ourselves that which we know our faith demands that we do not.

Every day we are bombarded with unhealthy and unchristian desires that want to influence and control the way we live our lives. They are all very pleasurable, which is why they are so tempting and so addicting if we give in to them and so difficult to resist. They will never go away in this life. That is why we must always pray for the grace and strength to stay awake and alert while at the wheel of life.