When my little sister shot and killed her husband, my older sister thought it was because she drank too much whiskey. She sent her a case of wine, thinking that it was the whiskey that caused the trouble, and wine would be much safer. We alcoholics frequently have the same kind of magical thinking that we can find a form of alcohol or a drug that won’t give us all the trouble that we have been experiencing. The same thing happens with all the varieties of drugs that are out there on the open market. 

Every Wednesday, I teach classes on addiction and mental health at a residential program in downtown San Antonio for men and women who have been recently homeless. I have the men for an hour, and then the women.

A new woman came early for class. She had picked up a copy of my book there, “Being Sober and Becoming Happy”. The book made sense to her about recovery, and AA seemed to make sense to her, but she said she had one problem: neither my book nor AA were Christian, and she is.

In the “Big Book” of Alcoholics Anonymous, we read “We are not cured of
alcoholism. What we really have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of
our spiritual condition. Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God’s will
into all our activities.” The book suggests a constant meditation on what God wants us
to be doing, all through the day.

I have always loved to travel, but I was afraid to fly. To overcome my fear of flying, I took flying lessons at the airport, on a Beechcraft Sport single engine airplane, and got a license. Once I understood airplanes, the FAA, and the air traffic control system, I lost my fear of flying. The keys to the whole system are following directions and doing the maintenance before every single flight. Most pilots are fanatical about maintenance. I have been on airliners where the pilot refused the plane because one toilet wouldn’t work. Everything on that airplane has to be in proper shape or the pilots refuse it. Safety is number one.

“Step Eleven: We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. “

                                                                                                                                        ---“Alcoholics Anonymous” page 59.

I read in the Wall Street Journal about Artificial Intelligence software programs now doing therapy for mental illness. With a bit of exploration, I found that A.I is also treating addiction. I am skeptical that A.I. will be a successful approach to treating a disease that we know to be “cunning, baffling, and powerful”.

One of my favorite writers is David Brooks, who writes a column for the New York Times. He normally writes about politics, government, and public affairs. I was surprised to find a column last month about faith. His title was “The Shock of Faith, It’s Nothing Like I Thought It Would Be.” It was published on December 19, 2024, and if you have access to the New York Times website, you can read it there.

“We thank God, from the bottom of our heart, that we know Him better.”
 ---Alcoholics Anonymous, page 75.

At the beginning of April 2020, I’m writing this blog at home. I am on a leave of absence from The Retreat due to the Covid-19 virus. I’m not sick, but I’m in the ‘high risk group”.  I’m 71 years old and have long term asthma that is easily activated. My wife, Priscilla, who almost never gets sick, may have had an incredibly short case of this disease. She ran a fever for less than a day, she was confused, had aches and pains, and slept. In one day, it was gone. She’s 81 years old.

I’m writing this on a morning in March when the news media is full of coronavirus, or Covid-19 stories. Today’s Star-Tribune newspaper reports that the Costco store near The Retreat is out of toilet paper and won’t have any more for five days. They are also out of hand sanitizer, plastic gloves, and bleach wipes. The food aisles are decimated, as well, with non-perishables in short supply. It isn’t a full and complete panic, but it is certainly a lot of anxiety for a state that has no known cases of the virus.