Sober At 60: Living a Miracle

You Don't Have to Drink on the Holidays

          "The spiritual life justifies itself to those who live it; but what can we say to those who do not understand? That it is a life whose experiences are proved real to their possessor, because they remain when brought closest into contact with the objective realities of life." From William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience

One year in the 1980s, divorced and alone, my friend Katie invited me to her parents Thanksgiving dinner on Long Island. I brought a bottle of vodka, a bottle of bourbon, and a red and a white: pinot noir, and Gewurztraminer, that, as a knowledgeable wine person and not an obsessive drunkard, would be nice conversation pieces and go well with the turkey. Then I decided that two bottles of hard liquor and two bottles of wine might be an excessive gift, so I left the vodka and bourbon in the car. Besides, Katie’s parents, like those of other Long Island families of the era, had well-stocked bars, a little bit of everything often bought from duty-fr…