new beginings?

I got to bed about 2am after a relaxing evening of dinner & dancing with sober friends only to be jolted awake at 6 by the phone - the hospital - calling about my neighbor and sponcee, Jason T.

A car accident. Broken leg, lacerated liver, punctured lung, ICU, etc.etc.etc. A tree. Blood alcohol almost 3X legal limit. BTW can you go next door and walk the dog?

Anyone who has been sober for a good while has gotten at least one of these calls.

Jason has been struggling with sobriety for 2 years now, after a successful period of 7 years in Philly. He had 29 days sober when he went to work last night; now he has a tube in his lung.

Cunning, baffling, powerful --- and maddening.

Will this be the wake-up call he's been waiting for? Each time it is worse than before, yet he continues to go back to the bottle. Will he survive his bottom and have a new beginning this time?

With this kind of object lesson in my face, I know I will.

I just spent 1.5 hours counseling his parents. They are elderly, have little understanding of alcoholism or bi-polar illness, and have just drive 3 hours to see him in the hospital and collect the dog. He was already trying to make his problems into their problems by convincing them to chase down his keys, his wallet, his car etc., but I convince them to just leave it alone. There will be plenty of time for him to clean up his own mess later on, and besides, if any of that stuff exists it will become evidence in a police investigation.

They tell me he was ejected from his convertible and was brought into the hospital naked and with one shoe on (his clothes were apparently cut off during transport). It is a miracle that he didn't break his neck since he had surgery in September to have a rod inserted in his spine to correct a crushed disc problem).

And while sorting thru his papers at home to find needed bills & contact numbers, I find 5 different prescription bottles, all from the same doctor ... an old story for us in recovery.

And while all this is going I amuse myself by roasting a 23# turkey ...

Did I mention my new beginning - my bankruptcy filing? Kind of important to me, but also kind of besides the point when alcoholism rears it's ugly head like it did today.