Addiction

I was thinking today about a young woman I knew some years ago.  She worked in a bar, and I would bring her poetry every Sunday, stuff I had written.  It was purely for me–as I think I have shared, sending energy out somehow is healing for me–but I did run into her several years later, and she said she had kept it, which made me feel a bit less ridiculous.  I am ridiculous, to be clear, but I try to keep visible reminders to a minimum.

She had some pretty obvious emotional traumas she was struggling to deal with, and I have often wondered if she wound up on heroin.  I was having an imaginary conversation with her tonight, and what I would answer if she asked me if I knew how to get off heroin.

I think I do.  It is as simple as it is complicated (remember this is my week of confusion, so go with it): addicts need to know, at the core of their being, that they are understood, accepted, and loved, and ideally by multiple people.  They need a core context where they feel welcomed.  They need a home.  They need a true family.  We all do, of course, but they need it more.

This is what I want to build in the Church I have spoken of.  Bohannons: that is what I will call the groups.  I have put a ton of thought into the logistics, but am not ready to share the details.

I thought I would put that out there.  I understand addicts.  I really do.

Unless, of course, I am confused.

I will add that in solving any problem, you always need as one option “I am being a dumbass and have fucked the whole thing up.  Full reboot.”

Princeton and Harvard (and of course others) would do well to keep this in mind.