I went to Bill Gothard's Basic Youth Conflicts seminar a couple of times as a teenager, starting at age 14, and one of the great messages I took from that was "don't take up an offense for somebody else." A great many social problems are exacerbated (and you don't want to get caught doing that!) by do-gooders and busy-bodies who jump in to fix somebody else's personal relationship with another person. Of course, violence is not under consideration here.

I seem to have taken this principle deeply to heart. I never join in somebody else's fight (unless it does get violent). And luckily I've never been a mean drunk. I'm not envious at all either. I took, and take, "Thou shalt not covet" extremely seriously. I was taught that obeying that commandment will help you obey all the others.

My problem as a drunk is that I'm too generous with people I shouldn't even associate with. (Yeah, yeah, bad grammar. Phtht!)