On Mothers Day
Dear Hope Nation, [This is a Choose Your Own Adventure letter with a twist. If you’re of a certain age, you remember this series of books. You’d begin a narrative and at an exciting part, you’d have to make a choice. For instance, “If you want to explore the cave,...
3) You, Hope Nation, are an amazing community of people
Dear Hope Nation, It’s week eight of Hope’s temporary closing. “Temporary,” of course, doesn’t mean short in time, it just means for a limited period. Hope will reopen soon, of course, at least as soon as it’s safe to do so. For now, though, to commemorate eight weeks...
Magic is time, not place.
Dear Hope Nation, Magic is a time and not a place. Forty years ago, I was finishing up my four-year hitch in the Army. After having been stationed in Germany for 30 months, I spent my last year at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. I’d been off heroin for a couple years, my...
…and when Hope reopens it is the endangered and the vulnerable we will protect.
Dear Hope Nation, I believe in freedom, and in every American’s right to determine his or her own destiny. If, despite knowing all the medical risks, I choose to continue smoking cigarettes, I want that freedom. If I want to ride my motorcycle without a helmet, I want...
And that’s my first memory.
Dear Hope Nation, Yesterday, I wrote about broken windows. Tomorrow I’ll write about what needs to be done to reopen Hope. For today, I’m going to ask for grace and share with you a piece of my childhood. Feel free to click away if this isn’t your cup of tea. Promise...
No explanation. No rhyme. No reason.
Dear Hope Nation, Over the course of the past eight days, someone has broken five different windows at Hope. Someone threw one rock through one window last Monday evening. Someone (or someones) threw three rocks through three windows last Thursday night. Someone threw...
None of my three faces is particularly cute…
Dear Hope Nation, Each of us has three faces. The face we show the world. The face we show our closest friends and family....
The buck stops with me. Period.
Dear Hope Nation, Yesterday was a beautiful day to be outside, and today promises more of the same. Please, please, please enjoy the world and all it has to offer—while practicing safe behaviors. We’re starting to see cracks in the eggs we’ve been inside for the last...
Please do the free thing to help us cover the expensive things
Dear Hope Nation, I’m not going to ask you for money in these letters. Never ever ever. I am going to beg you to something free that will help meet a need at Hope, a need that must be fulfilled if we are to reopen. Then I’ll casually mention a fundraising drive called...
All you touch, you change. All you change, changes you.
Dear Hope Nation, It’s now been about six weeks since Hope closed, since we set sail from Before the pandemic. From conversations, emails, text messages and Zoom meetings with many of you, I have the sense most of us have found our sea legs on this journey across the...
The universe is good
Dear Hope Nation, “In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can't build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death.”- Anne Frank I’d like to tell you a story that illustrates Anne Frank’s...
Change vs. chaos. We choose change.
Dear Hope Nation, We’re still sailing the Sea of During. The pandemic continues, and we don’t know when we will arrive in the Land of After. I wish I could tell you when Hope will reopen. I can’t. All I can tell you is we will reopen when it’s safe to reopen. I...
Progress, Not Perfection
Dear Hope Nation, As a boy, I had a few moral and ethical foundations as guideposts. First, my friends, who were always ready to encourage me to find my darkest side and explore the irrational. As almost everyone’s mother knew, I was the designated bad influence;...
This journey will have changed us
Dear Hope Nation, I always thought my childhood was fairly normal. Apparently, I was wrong. Or perhaps my misspent youth has resulted in a faulty memory. “Luckily” I’ve got a kid sister who remembers everything with crystal clarity, or at least everything I did that...
Iambic Pentameter
Dear Hope Nation, Another Sunday of sailing across the Sea of During. (Since I typed that period, I’ve spent 20 minutes trying to figure out whether that first sentence is iambic pentameter or whether its consonance/sibilance misleads me into hearing poetry. It’s...
If you say you’re in recovery, as far as I’m concerned, you’re in recovery
Dear Hope Nation, First, thanks for all the well wishes and concerns! My fever is gone, my soreness is gone, and only my spaciness remains—and that may just be my general condition. I’m really gratified at all the texts, phone calls and other messages I got inquring...
Today, more than ever, I want to cling to the joy of recovery
Dear Hope Nation, When I get sick, I get stupid and depressed. Really. I’m sick right now, and I feel like tic-tac-toe would be as overwhelming as chess, and I have to avert my eyes from omens. Particularly in this age, sickness carries a lot more than mandated bed...
Did writing a gratitude list help?
Dear Hope Nation, This is my third attempt at a letter to you. The first was a gripe about Zoom meetings, whether recovery or business focused. The complaints were real and factual, and I’ll likely complete it in the future. Watch this space! The second was a...
This is not a drill
Dear Hope Nation, This is not a drill. When I was in the 8th Infantry Division in Germany, we would often take part in joint military exercises with other NATO countries. Although these exercises were planned to the greatest extent possible, soldiers on the ground...
It will pass, just as this pandemic will pass, just as all things will pass.
Dear Hope Nation, [First, a disclaimer: Because of my open talk about suicidality in previous letters and elsewhere, I don’t want any of you to worry about me. I’m not contemplating, thinking about or toying with the idea of killing myself. What follows is just some...
Well, well, well. It’s the 20th of April
Dear Hope Nation, Well, well, well. It’s the 20th of April, 4-20. Depending on your background and mental health, April 20 is Adolf Hitler’s birthday (he’s turning 131 if he didn’t commit suicide in that bunker, did escape to Brazil and has managed not to die), the...
Really. I believe in the wisdom of the crowd
Dear Hope Nation, Last night’s Sicker than Most was delightfully DIY and fun! If you missed it, mark your calendar for May 16 at 7:30. I enjoy hearing from each of you. A couple dozen Hope members have contacted me over the past month, and each conversation has been...
…still worth a listen
Dear Hope Nation, Most of us have had the experience of walking down the street and looking into a shop window, seeing a reflection and having it magically become . . . YOU! It’s jarring, the same way finding yourself in a group photograph provides a flash of...
… any musical correspondence between my voice and the tune were purely hypothetical
Dear Hope Nation, Saturday night may be good for fighting. Saturday night may be the time you remember you ain’t got nobody. Saturday night may, if you’re a woman of a certain age be S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night! THIS Saturday night, though, is the Second Virtual Sicker Than...
Take what you can use and leave the rest
Dear Hope Nation, In the past 12-plus years, I’ve spent a lot of hours in church basements, meeting halls, recovery centers and classrooms. This time was shared with other drunks and addicts who’ve given up drinking and using in favor of a more life-affirming manner...