Of DRINKING and LONGEVITY

Note:
After a ten-year stint as structural designer in an American company in Manila, I resigned from the job. I went back to my hometown, jobless (of course), and started to reintegrate myself into normal, ordinary life with ordinary folks. Below is a narrative of an encounter I had with friends in the neighborhood.

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From a medical point of view, LONGEVITY is attributed to HEALTHY LIFESTYLE. Smoking cigarettes may not be a part of it. (Picture grabbed from HEALTH BOLT )

Longevity is basically referred to as long life. It may also be viewed as a person's potential to live relatively longer and enjoy life while aging. Many wish for a long life, but not all are endowed with it. So, what really determines and contributes to longevity? The question can be best answered by those who are in their twilight years; who have outlived their peers, friends, partners, or loved ones who happened to be their contemporaries.

Perhaps, from a medical point of view, the best answer to the question would be a healthy lifestyle that brings about good health. However, not everyone agreed. My neighbor and an alcoholic buddy is one of them. He thinks he's got a better answer to the question. He totally relies on fate and argues that nothing could bring one a longer life but God. Try to argue with him, and you would be introduced to his fatalistic view of life.

This neighbor and buddy of mine belongs to a group of heavy drinkers in the neighborhood. The group may not be an organized one; but, surprisingly, they can converge in a single place without being called whenever a bottle of liquor is available and served. Perhaps, their instinct and special sense of smell bring them together. The group made drinking their favorite pastime.

Recently, I found myself among the group in their usual drinking session. My affiliation with my neighbor and buddy would always draw me to the group on occasions like fiesta, Christmas, birthdays and in their usual drinking sessions. I've been always with the group as a pure observer before. Oftentimes, I would join to eat their pulutan; but never to feast on their drinks. However, this time is different: I joined the session not just as an observer - but to get drunk, too. Somehow, I have turned into a drinker. And somehow I may have found drinking a new passion in life after I came home from Manila jobless following my resignation from my job of ten years - a month earlier.

What turns out to be a counterproductive drinking session is, in fact, a melting pot of stories and life experiences, both funny and sad. Here, everything under the sun - such as showbiz, gossips, politics, and even one's own personal life can be a topic of discussion. Everyone is free to argue, oftentimes strongly, and debate with anybody. And the good thing is, even when everybody is drunk, I have never heard of any infighting among the group resulting from strong argumentation. It seems like, ironically, everyone is more sober when drunk. It also appears that when drunk, everybody becomes even more intelligent that you can hear some of them talking in English with ease in an American accent.

Typical INUMAN scenes in the Philippines. The most preferred inuman setup is a simple gathering of drinkers around a table or sometimes a makeshift table. The tanggero or dealer of the drink uses a single and common glass to serve and distribute the liquor among the drinkers.

Drinking - inuman, as Filipinos would call it - is inherent to Filipino culture and is always associated with birthday parties, fiestas, simple get-togethers or just pastimes. In rural areas in the Philippines, inuman can be seen or held inside one's house, inside one's backyard or elsewhere around the house. In our case, we did it in the neighbor's backyard under the shade of a big, old mango tree. Amazingly, it can also be observed on public streets and along sidewalks. It may be enjoyable to drink on public streets and along sidewalks, but such are potential threats to the peace and order in the area. So, to this effect, on September 18, 2017, President Duterte issued an order of a nationwide drinking ban in public areas.

Inuman has several setups as to how the drink is served and distributed during the session. The most preferred, however, is the one that is quite peculiar to our culture: the use of a single and common glass to serve and distribute the drink. Interestingly, one's saliva is also distributed and shared through the glass in the process. Sounds very unhygienic, isn't it? A familiar view in my hometown, this drinking setup is a simple gathering of drinkers around a table or sometimes a makeshift table. One of the drinkers would serve as tanggero or the dealer of drink. This person is responsible for distributing the drink evenly to everyone. The pacing by which the distribution is done is dictated by how fast a drinker gulps his share of drink. My neighbor and buddy, Mang Emong, happened to be the longtime tanggero of the group.

"I've been a drinker long before I got married," said Mang Emong, the elderly sixty five-year-old alcoholic neighbor, and a buddy. He's been drinking for decades without knowing that the liquor has already taken its toll on his body. He once told me about his annoying problem, presumably alcohol dependence or addiction. He said he would always wake up in the morning craving for liquor, with both hands and feet shaking like a leaf. This condition, he said, has affected the stability of his hands, preventing him to do his job. As a solution, he would keep a bottle of Tanduay rum close at hand. A single shot of Tanduay rum would be enough to calm him down, eliminating his shaking, thus allowing him to work normally.

"Drinking has been part of my normal life, and it had never hampered my ability to provide for my family. I frequently got drunk, to the chagrin of my wife and our only son; but we are a normal, perfectly functioning family," he added. Being able to provide for his family, it seems to him his drinking habit is not a threat to his family's welfare. The only threat he knows was his wife's frequent nagging - that is as frequent as his drinking. But the good thing, though, is - when there is no drinking, there is no nagging.

Aling Layda, Mang Emong's late wife, had been constantly complaining about his drinking habit. This is not surprising because her husband's health is important to her and her family. Being their neighbor (I was still a student then), it did not surprise me to hear Aling Layda nagging Mang Emong after a drinking session. And she really nagged like a machine gun. She would only stop nagging when Mang Emong would fall asleep - but would continue later when Mang Emong would wake up and is already sober enough to understand her rantings. Despite her nagging, Aling Layda was a loving and caring wife and mother. She was a religious woman, a frequent churchgoer, a devoted catholic and a member of several religious organizations. She is a perfect wife to Mang Emong but, unfortunately, she died of cancer less than a decade ago in her early 40's.

Being in a drinking session with these ordinary people is a very enjoyable experience. I even forgot that I am jobless. Everything here is natural: from the shade under the mango tree; to the scent of fresh summer breeze in the province, there is no pollution; to the kind of people I am drinking with and even to their own smell. Drinking may adversely affect my health, but this time it did not bother me because I know my limit. And I am sure I will never let myself become an alcoholic. What really bothers me are these drinkers, who are already showing signs of emaciation in their faces, especially Mang Emong who lost most of his teeth already. They would drink shots of liquor as if they are drinking glasses of water. I cannot imagine how their livers may look like by now after decades of heavy drinking.

Worried about the ill effects of alcohol to his health together with the others, I asked Mang Emong if he ever believed that a healthy lifestyle brings about long life and that drinking shortens his life expectancy. I also asked the rest of the drinkers the same question - and they responded in unison with a big NO; then, sarcastically, insisted that liquor is an elixir and drinking it adds life.

"I don't believe drinking shortens my life!" the tipsy Mang Emong protested in a very loud voice. His belief is strengthened by the fact that most of the senior citizens in our locality who are now between 70 and 90 years old were drinkers during their prime. To give his point more emphasis, he would set an example the case of a hundred year old senior citizen from a nearby barangay who just recently received a cash incentive of P100,000 as a one-time Centenarian Gift from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). According to Mang Emong, like him, the recipient was also a drinker during his younger years.

Being an alcholic, Mang Emong does not believe that a healthy lifestyle brings about long life. Of course, his is a case of self-justification. By taking the circumstances surrounding his wife's death as an example, he claimed that a long life is not about lifestyle; it is about fate and how one can evade death. But death is inevitable, he added; once God wants you dead, you are finished! "Look at my late wife. She was a health-conscious woman. She never drinks or smokes. She would nag me whenever I drink because she wanted the best health for me and prayed for my long life. She joined almost all religious organizations she knew to better serve God. Yet, despite all these, God wanted her dead at the young age of 42. Is that what you call long life?"

Now already drunk, Mang Emong talked about a young couple he met in a birthday party of a friend a few years back. Mang Emong narrated, the young couple arrived at the party riding a motorcycle in tandem. At the party, the young couple was introduced to Mang Emong and to the rest of the visitors. As soon as Mang Emong became tipsy, he became noisy but funny and caught the attention of the couple. The couple had an interesting conversation with Mang Emong until they noticed Mang Emong's unusual appetite for liquor. Out of concern for Mang Emong's health, the couple teased him: "Emong, don't you know that too much intake of liquor cooks your liver? Stop drinking and live longer, or enjoy drinking and turn your liver into a 'liver steak'. It's your choice."

Mang Emong just responded with a smile. He seemed not worried at all about the unfavorable comments he received from the young couple. He didn't have to argue about long life for obvious reason: he has outlived his wife who lived a healthy lifestyle - who didn't drink or smoke. Obviously, he has nothing to prove. Later, the young couple together with the other visitors bid farewell. Meanwhile, Mang Emong remained with his friends and continued drinking. Shortly thereafter, the birthday celebrant came running, shocked and panting. He brought with him a bad news and had to break it: "The young couple who left hours ago riding a motorcycle in tandem was hit and run over by a dump truck on the highway on their way home. The couple did not make it to the hospital."

Once again, Mang Emong "proved" that longevity has nothing to do with healthy lifestyle. And once more, he outlived another young people keeping a healthy lifestyle. He said it is now clear what determines and contributes to longevity. So, at the end of our drinking session, I told Mang Emong: "I want to see you as an awardee and a recipient of a one-time Centenarian Gift from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) years from now, and tell the world that you live long because of drinking TANDUAY RUM!"