Oh wow. Another 'criminal' in recovery who wants to get into the helping business. Hope he sees the light and comes to his senses. What is it about these new agey, spiritual people who send their kids to the desert to be tortured? I have to wonder if they are unaware of the reality of what's happening to their kid or if they condone it. I can't imagine the latter is true, but stranger things.... I mean... what's spiritual about depriving kids of food as punishment or forcing them to eat raw grains and legumes, and march/sleep in scorching/frigid temperatures? They can't possibly know the truth, can they?
Saturday, August 4, 2007
A Family Reunites, A Vision Unfolds
What a week . . .
Got up last Sunday morning, hit a meeting where a guy celebrated 20 years clean & sober, cut off the bracelet, hit the beach to marry a couple of friends of mine, and then headed off to the mountains of North Carolina for
my son's graduation from SUWS of the Carolinas, the therapeutic wilderness camp where he spent seven weeks
primitive camping ::roflmao:: in the Pisgah National Forest. A painful 10-hour car ride (I dread such travel), but expectations were high . . .
On Monday, a day-long seminar, along with the parents of 15 other graduating teens, all facing different specific circumstances, but all of us nonetheless in the same boat. A very informative day, learning why our kids are the way they are, what SUWS had been doing to bring them back to their center, and what we could do to assist them in their recovery from this point forward. A lot of empathetic bonding going on . . .
On Tuesday, reunification with our kids. Lots of hugs, lots of smiles, some tears, some tensions (mostly revolving around the issue of therapeutic boarding school as the next step for some), but mostly a palpable sense of relief-- the kids we remember were back from the deep and dark pit that brought them to SUWS. We could see it, we could hear it, we could feel it. Hope was in the air . . .
We all spent the day together out in the woods, learning skills, sitting in truth circles, sharing our fears and hopes, working through all that brought us to SUWS and all we hoped to take away. Towards the end of the day, we broke off into family solos for some quiet time together, some dinner, and a final therapy session with the counselor who guided our son through this experience. A sublime end to an emotional day . . .
Wednesday, we woke, we ate, we enjoyed a morning feast of of coffee, muffins, and yogurt, we gathered for a final truth circle, where we shared our rose (best part of the experience), our thorn (worst part of the experience), and our bud (biggest hope moving forward), and then we proceeded to a solemn and beautiful graduation ritual in a sun-dappled glade before a crackling fire. Mystical, wonderful, powerful . . .
Later that day, another 10-hour drive back home. Ugh. But I had profoundly good reading material-- The Spirituality of Imperfection: Storytelling and the Journey to Wholeness, by Ernest Kurtz & Katherine Ketcham-- and I had my little boy back. The wilderness had worked its magic once again . . .
Wilderness . . .
I've always been an earthy, crunchy sort, sometimes openly and unabashedly, sometimes in more muted form, depending upon my circumstances at the time. Nature, for me, has always been the ultimate expression of the divine, the true cathedral. Nothing else even came close. So I knew where to send my boys when they needed help. Nature has been there for me, and it saved both my boys, brought them back to their centers, and re-directed them in a positive way . . .
After my
oldest son went through SUWS, I did an internet search on wilderness therapy, to see how one trains to do this work. This was special stuff. Potent. Powerful. I was curious. Intrigued. My research gave rise to one program in particular that appeared to stand above all others-- the Masters program in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology, with a Wilderness Concentration, at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. A 3-year program, it combines clinical and academic coursework, wilderness training, personal awareness and therapeutic work, and professional experience in a one-of-a-kind program that trains one to do this work by not only teaching them about it, but also putting them through it. Experiential school, if you will. School plus. The outside job and the inside job, all in one. Putting into practice Morpheus's words to Neo near the beginning of the Matrix: "There's a difference between knowing the path and walking the path" . . .
As interesting as I thought it might be, though, I didn't give any real thought to actually pursuing this path, as I was already firmly and successfully on my way as a criminal defense attorney. Still, the seed was planted. And then I hit my bottom, began the journey of recovery, and quit practicing law . . .Enter into the picture my younger son's counselor at SUWS, a guy with whom I share a great many similarities. We're about the same age. I'm 19 months into recovery; he'll soon celebrate 8 years. We both lifeguarded on the beach in Ocean City, Maryland. We're both interested in the same approaches to the spiritual life. And, come to find, he's a graduate of Naropa University's Wilderness Therapy program, a member of the second class to go through the program. We connected, and it got me thinking about Naropa again . . .
This past Tuesday evening, after our last family session, I began to ask this guy a number of pointed questions about the Wilderness Therapy program at Naropa. What was the age range of participants? What prerequisite preparations needed to be in place? What was the program like, from his perspective? The epiphany moment arrived, however, when I asked whether this type of program, so successful with troubled teens, had ever been applied in the realm of adults. "No," he said, looking up at me. "But it should be" . . .
Bam! All of a sudden, my mind's flying with thoughts about the War on Drugs, the fact that we lock up hundreds upon thousands of non-violent drug offenders every year in federal and state prisons, and the extent to which wilderness therapy might constitute a viable sentencing alternative for some. Perhaps this is a way for me to take my legal experience, my political experience, and my recovery experience, and combine it with a masters from Naropa and work in the wilderness therapy field as a means of bringing this idea to fruition. Perhaps . . .
Ok. Slow down. I'm 41. I'm on a bracelet 'til October 24th. I'm on probation 'til October 20th of '08. I've got one son going into his senior year and possibly onward to college after that. I've got another son entering 9th grade. I own a house here at the beach in Maryland. I've got a good job with a company full of great people. Relax. Let the idea sit. Pray on it. Meditate on it. If this is meant to be, God'll let me know. I just need to keep doing what I'm doing and be open to the messages . . .
And the messages start to come. On Thursday, I head up to Baltimore to get the bracelet put back on, and I share with my agent this idea that's popped into my head. She looks at me, points to my ankle, and says, "You see that bracelet on your ankle? That started out as an idea in somebody's head." As I'm leaving, she tells me it sounds like I've got a plan. Then, as I'm returning to the Shore, crossing the Bay Bridge, listening to NPR, I hear a story about two young guys, Vista volunteers, teaching poor kids in the Mississippi Delta, who got the idea in their head that the U.S. should have a civilian public service academy analogous to the military service academies like West Point and Annapolis, where high school kids would go upon receiving a congressional appointment, and then serve for 5 years in civilian service positions across the country. Now these guys have got Senator Hillary Clinton sponsoring legislation to create this academy, and a whole slew of other Senators and Congresspersons signing on.
Perhaps God's trying to tell me something. Perhaps this idea's worth pursuing. Expanding wilderness therapy programs into the realm of adult non-violent drug offenders as an alternative to incarceration. Perhaps . . .
[No!! that's the devil. God told me tell you that he doesn't condone SUWS or similar programs that abuse kids in the desert under the guise of 'therapy'.]But faith without works is dead. As Socrates once said, "Let him who would move the world, first move himself." If I have an interest in doing this, I need to point myself in that direction and take action. Devise a plan. Might as well. If there is one thing I have learned in recovery, it is that I have control over what I do now, but I do not have control over the outcome. So, if I have an interest in this, I might as well try. It might happen. It might not. But I'll never know unless I take action and try . . .
So what now? I need to pick up three psychology prerequisites- Abnormal Psych, Developmental Psych, and Theories of Personality. My research, however, indicates that I can't take those without first taking Intro to Psych. So I'm setting myself up to take this course online with our local community college this fall. Beyond that, I need to brush up on my wilderness skills and do a wilderness experience of at least 14 consecutive days. Perhaps after the bracelet comes off, I can study some with
this guy in nearby New Jersey, and, perhaps next summer, I can do a 14-day field course
here, out in Utah. Beyond that, I just need to keep doing what I'm doing, walking this spiritual path, staying clean and sober, staying in the moment, doing the next right thing . . .
[
First link to Tom Brown's survival school. Second to BOSS. Totally conflicting philosophies!!! Stick with Tom Brown, who is really about teaching, and stay away from the ego maniacs at BOSS. Although if he takes the course Dave did
http://www.fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.ph ... 194#269194
he'll get a better idea of what your sons went through.] Who knows if this will ever come to pass? A lot of additional doors have to open beyond the psych pre-reqs and the wilderness prep. There's the financial end, the family end, the spectre of relocation. Seems like an insurmountable mountain. But, still, it seems pretty cool, and it's got me excited . . .
Father, Mother, Greater Oneness of All that Is, Great Spirit, God . . . if this is what you want me to do, then be with me, guide me, show me the way . . . open the doors, and I'll walk through them . . . make it happen, and I'll ride the wave . . .
Amen, Namaste, Om . . .
http://oceanshaman.blogspot.com/2007/08 ... folds.html