Thich Nhat Hanh and the yellow roses

One dozen long-stemmed deep yellow roses to be exact; Valentine’s day roses. Not having a large enough vase to accommodate all 12 together, I put 6 in a vase in the living room and 6 on a Chinese step cabinet which I use as a bedside table.

The 6 in the living room lasted a good 5-6 days, not bad for supermarket-bought flowers. The 6 in my bedroom were eerily fresh and unwilted at the end of the second week. Next to the bedside flowers was a photo of Thich Nhat Hanh.

If you don’t know what he looks like, he has the kind of face that is occasionally, and only, seen on long-time Buddhist practitioners. It is unwrinkled. There are no frown lines, no deep vertical clefts on either side of the mouth. He wears a perpetually serene and unsurprised expression. I keep this photo by my bedside because I like to see it when I wake up, before I get out of bed and take on the day. Read more

New Thinking in Alcohol Treatment

The common thinking that an addict had to emotionally buy into the need for treatment in order to begin recovery, essentially self-diagnose himself as an alcoholic,  is now in question.

In one of the classic texts on the subject, Loosening the Grip: A Handbook of Alcohol Information by Jean Kinnney, the author asserts that this is no longer considered necessary.

The addict needs to be convinced, by a preponderance of experiential and anecdotal facts that the diagnosis of alcoholism is true - he doesn’t need to be happy about it. (Who would be?)

This is a significant departure from formerly accepted theory.  No longer need time be spent trying to get the addict to emotionally accept the fact of his illness.  It’s enough that the professional provide irrefutable proof of addiction, such that the addict cannot dispute it.