People have been drinking alcohol ever since some ne'er-do-well caveman decided to down that funny-smelling berry juice despite the warnings of his friends. Since then, most people have fallen into two categories: Non-Drinkers and Casual Drinkers, or as I like to call them, boring people and amateurs. A small percentage of people unfortunately make alcohol a part of their daily lives without developing the knowledge, respect and self-awareness required to handle the habit. These people are drunks and they're uniformly awful. Depending on who you talk to, drunks will either be branded as degenerates or victims. The truth is that they're just not mindful of the power of the drink. They abuse it and disregard its nuances in favor of indistinguishable blankets of intoxication.
There are a few folks who don't fit in any of the above categories, though. We drink more often and in larger quantities than the amateurs but we do so with a measure of control, respect and high function. We're not addicts or party animals, not problem drinkers or substance abusers. We're lushes, the iron-livered students of ethanol and the way it changes people. We understand that strong drink is a serious social cog that is inextricably tied to the course of civilization, that it's equally dangerous and beautiful.
The Lush Chronicles is a series of rum-soaked ruminations and wine-fueled confessions on the nature of alcoholic beverages and the culture that surrounds them. It is an examination of drinking and drunkenness from the perspective of those who have gone deep enough into the saturated life to gain some insight, but not deep enough to lose themselves to it.