On the Road to Recovery
My name is Karen, and I'm not perfect. I've never gone to an AA meeting, and maybe you haven't either, but we've all seen them portrayed on TV. Each person who shares begins with their name and addiction. And the response? No judgment. No condemnation. Not even, "You should do X to fix yourself." The response is simply, "Hi [your name]." What's offered is welcome, acceptance, a listening ear, and support. Why we live at odds with others All too often, we don't approach other people this way. We don't do this for each other. Instead of listening and talking, we take offense. We decide we are right, we have to be right. We rush to judgment, forgetting that we too should start with "I'm Karen, and I'm not perfect." When we forget that we're a work in progress, just like everyone else, we divide ourselves from others. We create "them" (the ones that don't meet our standards of acceptability) an