stories of recovery

It's been a month since I've posted. Just didn't feel like it. But then, that may not matter if no one is really reading this. :-) I recently read two books about the children of two national figures and their struggle with alcohol and drug addiction.

One book is Broken - My Story of Addiction and Redemption by William Cope Moyers the son of Bill Moyers. The other is Terry - My Daughter's Life-and-Death Struggle with Alcoholism by George McGovern. Moyers writes a powerful story of how it took him four times of treatment and starting over with a program of 12 Step Recovery to come out of the grips of the addiction. It is a horrendous story. But the McGovern book is more tragic. Terry died in 1995 in Madison, WI having fallen over in a drunken stupor outside in Dec and freezing to death.

Both stories sound familiar. Both main characters are the children of two prominent people in the "liberal - social justice" realm of American culture. What is revealing is how both Bill Moyers and George McGovern don't get it...even though it seems that Moyers does to a greater degree than McGovern did. Even though McGovern writes the book about his daughter, he reveals much about himself. Both men have been heroes for me. But their struggle with their kids addictions reveals how much they were passionate for social justice and yet were so unaware of what was really happening for their kids...AND themselves.

I see this in much of the social justice community today. Focused on right thinking but missing the personal currents that can't be healed by right thinking or even action. Rather than controlling the conditions of the world, they are faced with letting go of control. I see this a lot within the church tradition/denomination of which I have been a part my whole life...and the vein in which I acted for many years...of the United Church of Christ/UCC.

I strongly recomment the Moyers book. William Moyers story is painful, but more widespread among the "liberal" portion of our nation than many of us want to admit (but then it is an equal opportunity disease among conservatives too!) I will be buying up old copies from amazon to pass out around our church. The 12 Steps of Recovery have become a center piece for both the personal and corporate life of our church.