Slow Havamal: 12

In the twelfth verse, we hear that though men claim there is value in alcohol for one’s well-being, it’s overblown. We lose wisdom the more we drink.

The exact words to describe those claims of alcohol’s benefits are “not as much good.” Note that it doesn’t say there is “no good” in alcohol. Havamal is short on Puritanical binaries. Often, it’s a balance that is promoted, rather than rigid adherence. We’re in the midst of a flurry of verses about drinking. What someone learns from an encounter differs sharply with the traveler passing through. In my case, I have little interest in weighing the pros and cons of alcohol consumption. I’ve chosen to take inebriation as a metaphor for indulging in one’s passions. By passions, I mean the visceral desires and emotions present in all of us, distanced from the reasoning mind.
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014: Tis Better to Give than to Receive

When I was a kid, I always hated the expression that cropped up for about a month every year. Is that so? Great, then give me my presents, you can thank me later. Wise Men come bearing gifts, and children get fewer and fewer every Christmas until their output matches their input and we start to wonder why we didn’t just buy all this garbage for ourselves.

I’ll admit, once you get the whole prefrontal cortex thing figured out, the concept seems to pass the sniff test, but I was always at a loss to explain why without just falling back on circular parent-logic—because it’s the right thing to do and I said so. It’s only taken me a little over three decades, but I think I may have found a less-lame perspective. A cold, calculated explanation in terms of systems theory and an ecology of mind that even the most selfish, sniveling snotdripper would have a hard time denying without just “saying so.”
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