A POST

People are viewed through the lens of their actions and it is through our choices that we expose our beliefs, priorities, desires and vulnerabilities. Where we work, volunteer, how we spend our free time, the people we allow in our lives, the books we read are all clues into a value system that defines us more accurately than we define ourselves. The longer we live, the denser the decades, the more solidified our belief systems. Through backstory analysis, what appears to be a dozen disconnected chapters paints a comprehensive canvas of our true self. The who we are is part of the why. The why is central to the where, what and when of our past.  

My university years began with the study of business, accounting and economics. These subjects felt like a logical transition into adulthood where I may have remained if I had not chosen an elective in Contemporary Social Issues. My class explored modern society through the eyes of poverty, racism, economic inequality, gender discrimination and public education along with a dissection of the political and economic systems which control, undervalue and suppress the american dream. Three years later, I graduated with a degree in education and taught briefly in the public schools of southwest Virginia and upstate New York. I loved the students, adored the art of teaching, struggled with the classroom environment.

I moved West where I continued my studies completing a MFA in film production, a natural progression as the screen is just a large classroom and the medium of film a continuation of story and exploration. Throughout the next decade, I worked on films, I wrote films, I taught film classes and I raised a few highly creative children. My choices were easy, my life was complete. My history with social issues was in the past where I was graciously willing to let it remain.   

The backstory soon became a part of the present story. I took a job as the personal coordinator to the clinical director at an inpatient addiction recovery facility. The next decade became more dense than I ever projected. My resume includes administration to operations to clinical, teaching of workshops to coordinating speaker meetings and panels. I spent days engaged as a high school academic advisor and film instructor while evenings and weekends I worked with adult addicts and alcoholics. Intimate family interventions, small private detoxes and month long sober companion commitments became a familiar scenario. The social concerns of my youth had resurfaced with addiction as the common denominator. Today, my work in recovery as a companion, transport and consultant allows me to continue in this tradition.