This morning my wife told me about a CNN article she ran across describing a developing trend about the decline in alcohol consumption in the US. It opened with a description of a New York gathering place that was alcohol-free and featured a drink called a “shrub” – a club soda drink with a vinegar, fruit, and sweetener mixture added.

In my refrigerator at this moment is a cruet filled with ginger and turmeric infused apple cider vinegar sweetened with honey. A small amount mixed with club soda makes a nice mid-day drink that I have been enjoying for several years now. Since I don’t drink alcohol these days and have been drinking shrubs for years, I find myself in a place I’ve never been before.

I’m ahead of a trend.

Not sure how I feel about that; I’m generally suspicious of trends. It took me a long time to join Facebook, and I have only recently been made aware of something called Instagram. I’m confident that at least 80% of my smartphone’s capabilities go untapped, since I’m still struggling with the fact that I don’t have a phone – I have an extremely powerful pocket computer that also happens to function as a mobile phone. Generally speaking, I’m out of touch with what’s happening at the moment.

Since trends are by definition a fleeting thing, I assume that the fact that I’m in the forefront of this one will last a couple of hours at most. Then I can go back to being so far out of the loop that I can’t see the loop from where I’m standing. And that’s okay; I’m pretty comfortable there.