Too Much of a Good Thing Can Be Hazardous to Your Health

Icarus and his father, Daedalus, escaped  imprisonment using wings Daedalus constructed from bird feathers held together with beeswax. Before escaping, Daedalus warned Icarus not to fly too low or the water would soak the feathers, and not to fly too high or the heat would melt the wax. Icarus ignored his father not to fly too close to the sun, causing the beeswax in his wings to melt. Icarus fell from the sky, plunged into the sea, and drowned.

Like Icarus, I flew too high. As I told in my book, Corking the Bottle (https://covenantbooks.com/books/?book=corking-the-bottle):

"I had a wonderful childhood raised by teetotalling parents who loved each other and taught me and my three kid sisters to love.... We didn’t have much, but we had all we needed. I was a straight-A student.... I won awards. I landed a part-time sports writing job at our local newspaper, The Beaver County Times. This led to a full-paid scholarship based on writing ability, so college was totally free. I graduated from Point Park College in Pittsburgh a year early because of college level tests I passed, got a job as news bureau manager in my mother’s hometown of Grove City where I still had lots of relatives, and jumped into my newspaper job the day after my last final exam.

"I married my childhood sweetheart at the same time I started a public relations job, where my salary doubled overnight from my journalism job....  We had two splendid daughters (who are still splendid as adults) and enjoyed a close family life, often camping and hiking in the mountains.... I could go on, but I think that’s enough to show I had a Midas touch. If something didn’t work out for me, something better came along."

So can one have too much of a good thing? Yep.

"People who believe they are winners get lazy, self-indulgent, arrogant. They're not good people, not as good as they could be. So when something bad happens, its meaning can be easy to read. They needed a lesson in how important it is to be a good person, with a particular focus on humility." (Everything Happens for a Reason,   (https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/385817-everything-happens-for-a-reason-finding-the-true-meaning-of-the-events)

That was me, all right. So when I l got laid off and couldn't find another full-time job, even in the fast-food business, I turned to drinking. My beeswax melted and I crashed into the sea. Too much of a good thing can be destructive. Don't fly too close to the sun.

As the book says, everything happens for a reason. Getting sober, I learned humility and how to be a better person. Now I fly comfortably under the sun and above the sea.