To the editor:
I read with interest the article on the “Informed Opinion” page (Mar/Apr), by David J. Powell.

I’m 68 years old and have been drug and alcohol free since 1984. I agree with Dr. Powell that the needs and concerns for all of us change with age. But the changes continue, long past what the article addresses.

I have learned that the passage to becoming an elder is difficult to understand, if you’re not there, and not acknowledged in a culture which celebrates youth, beauty and glamour. This subtle transformation is often not noticed by the person who is in it: it’s way too scary; too uncharted; too “weird”; and has little social acceptance.

But we all know that. There’s more, however.

I’ve noticed for example that my regrets of the past are long gone. Whatever sadness I have is useful: it’s sandpaper for my ego when I become overly judgmental of others. Those who wish to live in my past are welcome to it. I moved out, quite a while ago. Now I see the past more deeply, and in the context and experience of 68 years of living. I see it with gratitude and laughter.

I’ve researched aging and recovery and that research as well as my personal experience show me that this is, potentially, the time of deepening spiritual curiosity and capacity. It is a time of talking less and moving more deeply into the mystery.

The passage to being an elder is a time of ongoing and accelerating loss. Losses. False identity is altered, the masks are ripped off, mobility is restrained, the senses are diminished (except for the intuition, which is profoundly enhanced, in my experience) and friends and relatives are dying at what seems an accelerated rate.

Powerlessness and unmanageability acquire new faces and different forms now; and yet we go on, often marginalized.

At no moment in the life of sobriety is that sobriety more threatened than in the moment when one says, as I once did, with the power of new and unexpected truth, “I’m old!”

And yet we go on, often marginalized.

Sadly, we even marginalize ourselves, at just the moment of incorporating an unimaginable power – the power of The Elder.

I have no need to persuade any longer, only to invoke the potential for awakening.

So I’ll finish with a quote from T.S. Eliot that I deeply identify with and which points to the potential of spiritual maturity the 12 Steps offer.

“Do not let me hear
Of the wisdom of old men, but rather of their folly,
Their fear of fear and frenzy, their fear of possession,
Of belonging to another, or to others, or to God.
The only wisdom we can hope to acquire
Is the wisdom of humility: humility is endless.”

Thank you for your kind attention to these words of mine.

Bill Alexander

To the editor:
I am a Substance Abuse Prevention Intervention Specialist, which we called a SAPIS, within the Department of Education. I work in two assigned schools in the Bushwick area of Brooklyn, educating the children of our future in the Life Skills Curriculum. I have been doing the work of Prevention for 12 years in the elementary setting and just recently we have been experiencing a great deal of opposition and difficulty maintaining our status and position within the schools due to budget cuts.

I want to commend you on your great newspaper, filled with a wealth of resources for those bound to addiction. It is resources like these that can help so many, especially those parents who are not ready to come forth so quickly to ask an educator for help.

My job is taxing and yet so rewarding; I have a new passion and vigor each morning to help encourage and strengthen those caught in the thicket of addiction, shining the light in the darkest part of their lives and illuminating a path in life worth living – drug free.

The newspapers you sent me went like hot cakes and I look forward to more copies of the next issue to distribute to my colleagues in the upper grade levels, so their students can also benefit from reading your paper.

Again, Thank you so much.

Benjamin Torres

PS. The article on “Smoking and Recovery” (Jan/Feb) is being used as an add-on piece to my lessons: it’s a great piece, just awesome.
To the editor:
I am writing this morning to express my gratitude to all the publishing team on the Together newspaper for its quality and interesting and very informative articles.

Additionally, I’d like to let you know about the positive impact that your newspaper and its article “Does the noise in my head bother you?” (Mar/Apr) has had, as it has reached several counselors here at our agency, including groups and its clients.

Please continue with this wonderful and purposeful work you are doing, and know that your efforts and hard work reach many of us, and is the helping hand that helps us counselors to better help people/clients to improve their lives!

“Thank you!!” from all of us.

Patricia Pueyrredon, LMHC, CASAC, SAP
DAYTOP VILLAGE, Inc.