We Are Family

Family: all the people living in the same house.

Family. The installer of our buttons. The dasher of our dreams. The source of all of our defects. A group who has conspired since the dawn of time to make our lives as miserable as possible. People who can present a perfectly ordinary front to the general public, then turn into a horrific group of blood sucking monsters with really big teeth behind closed doors.

Yes, maybe. It isn't unheard of -- there are some crappy families out there. But mostly we find ourselves dealing with an average group of folks who have an average collection of character defects. Defects aggravated by alcoholics, active or in recovery. Face it: alcoholics can bring tears of frustration to the eyes of saints and heroes.

The trick is to stop looking for the defects in other people. We're going to find them. Everybody has defects. The trick is to start working on ourselves. Leave those other people alone.