Mar 1 , 2017
Dear Hossein,
I was delighted with your below description of how the Congress 60 and NA approaches to recovery support may be complementary. Please send along any additional thoughts of how you see simultaneous or sequential involvement in Congress 60 and NA within the many branches of Congress 60. I may be able to incorporate some of this information within the study that Dr. Galanter is doing on NA in Iran. I can imagine situations in which people who are struggling to achieve stable recovery in NA could benefit from the DST method to initiate their recovery and situations in which people who have achieved recovery through the DST method might join NA as another form of long-term recovery support. I welcome any further thoughts and observations you have on this.
In your email, you stated: “Someone is pointing to the moon but out of ignorance and prejudice some people assume that the index finger is what he is trying to show.
They start talking and debating about the beauty of the index finger while the prime subject (the moon) is ignored.” I found this a wonderful metaphor for so many ideological debates about addiction treatment in which the goal of long-term recovery is rarely mentioned. As your metaphor suggests, recovery, not treatment as an end in itself, is the goal. Sustained recovery is the prize we should and must keep our eyes upon.
I want to mention that I regularly visit the Congress 60 website and enjoy the latest updates, articles, interviews, and photos. Please extend my admiration to all those involved in maintaining the website. They do a wonderful job. I am continuing to work on transition to a new tech support person for my website. It has been a very difficult and time-involved process but I feel like it is close to being completed.
My best wishes to all members of Congress 60 as you enter the Nowruz holiday. I look forward to the photos from the annual tree planting ceremonies.
My mailing address is still 3329 Sunset Key Circle, Unit 203, Punta Gorda, Florida 33955 USA. I look forward to receiving the Love book. I am continuing to edit my professional memoir of lessons learned and still hope to complete it this year.
Friends and Brothers Forever,
Bill