So You Think You Can Temperance
Eat not to dullness and drink not to elevation.
That was Ben Franklin’s definition of Temperance. And—not to brag—when I read that I thought, I’m wicked good at temperance. I rarely drink because I have a ridiculously low tolerance for alcohol. I’ve been told by people who love me that the episode in The Office where Pam is banned from Chili’s looks like a telenovelization of having a glass of wine with me.1
I’ve never really had any interest in alcohol. Halfway through college, I was in a play in which my character was drunk. Because I’d never been drunk before, I had to get together with friends to develop some sense memories to bring to the stage. I’m such a dork that I brought a notebook so I could keep careful notes about the experience. (Don’t worry, I was duly mocked.) I love thinking clearly and not being sick, so I don’t like drinking to elevation. Ditto for eating to dullness.
Temperance is clearly no problem for me, so I’ll catch you for the next virtue, thank you very much.
…
Okay, okay: Franklin’s definition points to a broader interpretation. Here’s a dictionary definition for temperance, beyond its association with alcohol:
TEMPERANCE noun tem·per·ance | \ ˈtem-p(ə-)rən(t)s , -pərn(t)s\
1: moderation in action, thought, or feeling : RESTRAINT
2: habitual moderation in the indulgence of the appetites or passions 2
Given that moderation is a separate virtue on Franklin’s list, for our purposes, we'll focus on restraint: curbing those appetites and passions. In which case, because I have no interest in alcohol, it doesn't encompass temperance for me. Of course I have more tempting vices. There are many things I could choose to focus on, but for this month, I’m going to commit to abstaining from sugar. I’ve had to do this in the past to tackle a pesky bout of thrush while I was nursing Quentin, but that previous brush with temperance didn’t feel voluntary. It wasn’t bourne out of moral purity; it was required for my child’s well-being and non-negotiable. Much like the Temperance Movement of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which was focused on the legal prohibition of alcohol. The movement was led predominantly by women who had little political agency and suffered greatly at as a result of overindulgence by men. It was ultimately a failure because while the suffering endured by disenfranchised women and children was real, the impetus to change on the part of those who were doing the actual drinking was artificial. It was a decision foisted upon everyone and as such, its effects were not lasting. Walt Whitman’s only novel was about Temperance and he later joked with his buddy that the inspiration for Franklin Evans came from "relays of strong whiskey cocktails, in order to keep the printer's devil, who was waiting, supplied with copy." (Whitman 124–125n1)3 In other words, he drank whiskey to keep the words flowing. And even more cynically, toward the end of his life, Whitman claimed he only wanted to cash in on the Temperance craze because the "offer of cash payment was so tempting—I was hard up at the time." It’s a good thing Uncle Walt focused on poetry after Franklin Evans because as Whitman himself admitted,
““It was damned rot—rot of the worst sort—not insincere perhaps, but rot, nevertheless.” (Whitman 1:93)”
In my case, Quentin would have suffered if I hadn’t abstained from sugar. But just like the Prohibition Era, my sugar temperance was a long-term failure. As soon as Q’s thrush cleared, I hopped right back on the sugar train because chocolate is awesome. And becasue sugar is ubiquitously laced throughout the U.S. food chain and it takes effort to actively avoid it. And because just like Whitman, I may have sincerely believed in the theoretical benefits of my temperance, but I wasn’t committed to an abstinence I didn’t choose.
Now I’m curious to about the virtue of sincerity.
For the next month, I’m going to voluntarily practice temperance by abstaining from sugar. I already know this is a difficult commitment for me to keep. I’m already prickling at the rigidity of abstinence, so I’m looking forward to examining the practice of this virtue and assessing its relevance in the modern world with you.
I invite you to join me. How can you practice temperance in your own life? Please share your experience in the comments below!
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Notes:
Cover image: "File:Landesklinikum Melk Kapelle Medaillon 03.jpg." Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository. 16 Sep 2019, 07:34 UTC. 23 Sep 2019, 16:08 <https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Landesklinikum_Melk_Kapelle_Medaillon_03.jpg&oldid=366192293>.
Franklin Evans cover: “Franklin Evans.” File:Franklinevans.jpg, Wikipedia, 17 Oct. 2017, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Franklinevans.jpg.
1. “The Office Jim GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY.” GIPHY, GIPHY, 30 Apr. 2019, giphy.com/gifs/the-office-EWw67jsKa5pXq.
2. “Temperance.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/temperance.
3. Whitman, Walt, and Thomas L. Brasher. The Early Poems and the Fiction. New York University Press, 1963.