Tuesday, March 22, 2022

Black as Night

 Remember: It's always darkest before it goes totally black.

There's a new guy who's been coming to my morning meeting.  He's had sobriety before but is trying to come off a long relapse.  I asked him two days ago how he's making out.  He's waiting to hear about subsidized senior housing but in the interim he's sleeping outside.  The weather here is pretty nice but it gets chilly at night and damp so it's not great.  He has tried sober living and different men's shelters but found them so onerous he prefers sleeping outside.

He's never asked for money which I categorically refuse to give at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.  The next time I saw him I slipped him $20 so he could at least eat.

This morning he was at the meeting.  With a cup of Starbucks.  Only in this Program, right?  When I give money to someone it's unconditional how they use it and I never ask for it back.  In my mind the cash is a gift, a present.  If I'm opened minded I could surmise that someone bought him a cup of coffee outside of a Starbucks or he was reusing a cup that he had been hanging onto.  I try not to judge.  I wasn't mad at all; I laughed out loud when I saw it.  Who knows?  Maybe the guy decided a cup of good coffee was going to do him more good than a greasy McDonald's hamburger and maybe he's right.

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