Charm, those are all very valid points. I have a feeling the cancer medical community is pretty well split on this issue, though of course I have no way to judge the proportions! It might be that part of my own decision comes from knowing myself. If I start at once a week it'll become twice, then I'll say the hell with it and find myself having a glass of something with dinner every night. So I guess I find total abstention more realistic.

I also find that the longer I go without alcohol the less I miss it. On Thanksgiving I tried the tiniest sip of red wine. It was bitter and unpleasant, which is maybe a good thing considering. But I also tried a similarly small slurp of beer a month or two ago and it was hard not to drink the whole glass!

Nobody said life wasn't without continual challenges. In the long view of things, this issue is trivial. We're alive, yes.

d2