Reaching the Crossroads

GROWING UP in the 1950s, I was in the "exceptional child" class of Dr. Spock. I exhibited above-average intelligence and was gifted musically. Those powers gave me absolutely no relief from the spiritual oppression and emotional pain of the disease alcoholism. Yet I exalted intellect and creativity. I resisted surrender, because I mistook acceptance for resignation, and humility for humiliation. My own true nature as a loving, but imperfect, human being was hidden from me. I did not know the difference between living and surviving.