Year: 2021
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Service in the face of adversity
For the past few years, I’ve been running an Alateen group. For those who have fortunately been spared the need to know about such things, Alanon is a ‘support group’ (for want of a better term) for people whose lives have been affected by alcoholism in a family member or close friend. It is a counterpart 12-step program to Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), which is (obviously) for the alcoholic themselves. Alateen is effectively ‘Alanon for teenagers’. Most of the kids coming to my group have an alcoholic (or addict) parent; for some of them, it’s a sibling. Often, the parents are… Read more
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Travel in the Time of COVID
My daughter is currently on a veterinarian ‘study abroad’ trip to South Africa. This is really a make-up trip, to compensate for the one she was supposed to take to Peru last March – you know, right when COVID-19 blew up – which was cancelled (at 24 hours notice). This one was planned out well in advance, COVID vaccinations were received, her passport validated, and so on. But getting her on the plane was far from easy. She was scheduled to fly out last Saturday – from Houston to Newark, and then Newark to Johannesburg. The airline requires a negative… Read more