For me, there’s an irresistible connection between the baskets of glowing vegetables at our Saturday Farmers’ Market and the hope expressed in this poster for recovery from addiction.
In this country, it seems to me, nearly everyone is addicted to something, as exemplified right now in the rush to buy, buy, buy and travel, travel, travel, travel as the restrictions of the pandemic begin, it seems, to fade.
Did we learn anything from a year spent alone and perhaps quietly? I doubt it. By now we are at least four generations into consumer culture and with no strong spiritual or—dare I say—religious conviction, buying is our church and travel is our sacrament.
But back to the vegetables. To the degree that recovery is possible—and I do believe it is possible—it relies on principles as earthy as carrots pulled from the dirt. First of all, humility, a word we seldom hear, a concept we don’t appear to honor since it seems to have a link to humiliation.
Of course it doesn’t really. But pride is so much more fun!
A second principle, also smelling of dirt, is community—not the mindless gatherings that depend more on a lot of food and too much liquor than on anything else, but a community of the wounded.
This is the true horror of AA, NA and all Twelve-step programs, and it’s a horror that keeps many with other options away—options like overpriced 30-day treatment programs in spa-like surroundings or crippling and also over-priced regimens of drugs. Which of us is humble enough to stand up in front of strangers and declare “I am so-and so-and I am an addict”?
After all, we are so much else.
Or—are we?
Back to beans, carrots and radishes and the brave people who painted this poster and offer help that depends on community, humility, and vegetable-like health.
I am exactly that and “so much else.”
Thanks Sallie