Why I Work with Alcoholics
I was conceived somewhere in that unknown land that lies between fate and
destiny, and there, someone much higher and stronger than I, deemed it necessary
to cast me upon the reefs of life and backwash me into an eternity of love,
hate, joy and sorrow.
He chose me to wander in the Islands beneath the Southern Cross and span the
greatest of continents numerous times. Many times he chose me to lie in drunken
stupor upon skid-rows and to rave deliriously while bound to a hospital bed.
Once he placed me in the company of the giants of the construction world only to
return me to the trowel and level. He saw fit at times to decorate me with
military honors but yet he also confined me within his jails.
Then one day, as I lay fallen, Jekyled by my own selfish lust and greed, he
reached down and helped me to stand erect again.
He taught me once more of love for the young and respect for the aged, and he
tutored me at the open gates of hell the meaning of right and wrong. He caused
my eyes to witness hideous death and reflect upon blessed birth. The screams of
death and the hymns of peace he re-echoed within my ears.
Most of all he taught me to be humble. Humble enough to learn his teachings
and to carry his wisdoms and truths, to the open minds of the many who were less
fortunate that I and had never risen from the depths of moral and physical
decay, to cast aside a carcass of self-pity and behold the wonders and fantasies
of the world about me.
Because of all this, I wish to reach into my heart and take from my memory
shelf, the bitter and the sweet and blend them with the cold loneliness of a
foggy night; the triumphs of the victors; the scorn of the defeated. I want to
pass on to those who have yet to come, my trials and errors and the wisdoms I
have gained in order that I may now walk with my head erect and not bowed in
shame.
Gene Duffy