THREE GENERATIONS OF ABUSE

THREE GENERATIONS OF ABUSE

Giuseppe winemaker extraordinaire was sitting on the back porch of his farm-house overlooking his vineyard. He was sad, remorseful and filled with regret and hadn't washed or eaten for three days. Mercedes his wife of three years had left him because of his constant and incessant abuse. She had noticed that he becomes a monster whenever he gets into a drunken stupor. She had threatened to leave him once before, but this was the final straw, so she walked out of his life for good. He had slapped her and swore at her for spilling his drink, inadvertently. Taking another slug straight from his unfinished bottle which he opened the night before, he chocked and shook his head from side to side. He could not reconcile with the idea that the woman he loved so much, who he gave so much, who he was intermit with for three whole years, could just give it all up without batting an eyelid and leave him.

Whenever Giuseppe distilled a batch of liquor he would save the third bottle for himself since he was a third generation Guerra. His father Ernesto Guerra, also a famous winemaker always saved the second bottle for himself since he was a second generation winemaker.  But his father, Giuseppe’s grandfather, the world renown winemaker believed that his needs always came first and the first bottled was always his. Giuseppe stooped over and embedded his face in his hands which rested on his knees, reflected on his past misdeeds which mimicked that of his father Ernesto who he had seen punch his mother in the face because their supper was cold. As a child he also witnessed Sebastian his grandfather push his grandmother off the porch that he was now sitting on, because she spilled tea into the saucer when she served it to him. All Giuseppe remembers about her, is that she walked with a cane ever since, hardly spoke and had tremors in her voice whenever she did. Then it dawned on him that they were three generation of winemakers, three generations of women abusers and it surprised him, that it took all of three years to wreck his marriage.

A few moments later he leaped to his feet, knocked the chair he was sitting on, off the edge of the porch with force, sending flying into the distance. In his anger he punched the fluted pillar that held up the pergola, covered by a bougainvillea creeper. He then back hand slapped the bottle of wine he was drinking from which was perched on a round table beside him, breaking it and sending glass splinters flying all over. Then Giuseppe burst out crying and through his sobs, in a hardly audible and muffled voice repeated, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry", over and over again. He had just realised that the chair he shoved could have been his grandmother Louisa and that the pillar he punched could have been his mother Rebecca, and that the bottle he backhanded could quite easily have been Mercedes. 

He impersonated the actions of Carlos Guerra his grandfather and Ernesto his father and felt ashamed of himself, because not only did he inherit winemaking from them but he had learnt abuse by example. "It’s the wine that made us do it," he said loudly, "it’s the wine." Without thinking he ran into the vineyard and started trampling and stomping on the young vines as if he wanted to force it to go back to where it came from. Suddenly Giuseppe went completely calm, walked over to the shed where the tractor lived which he promptly started and drove through the vineyard uprooting and destroying every visible vine. Right in the middle of the field he dismounted the tractor and amidst the dust Giuseppe fell on his knees, looked up to the sky and prayed for guidance. He hadn’t prayed in a very long time because he succumbed to Satan's "curse in a bottle"  and was far too busy making wine for himself and others. Three years later, the new, reformed, teetotaller Giuseppe finds himself walking hand in hand with his new wife Tatiana through the paths in his olive grove explaining to her that they can expect a bumper harvest in the next three years-  God willing.

QUOTES TO PONDER ON

"Abuse is learnt."

"Actions have consequences, good actions have good consequence and bad actions have bad consequences."

"Be a man, cultivate good habits and lead by example." 

"Self control is the key to happiness." 

"The strongest man is not the one who wins the fight but the man who controls his anger to prevent a fight."

"Liquor destroys lives, the permanent damage and destruction it causes outweighs the momentary pleasures it brings, by far. " 

"Don't blame others take responsibility for you own deeds."

"Prayer is the answer to all your troubles."

"The best prayer is a prayer for guidance."

"God will not change the condition of anyone until they first change that which is in their hearts."