Yesterday I received an email from the USA. It was from my first sponsor, Will B. He still lives near where I live and works as a counselor at Hillslope Rehab Clinic. He has been there a while, ever since I have known him actually. When I first met him he was a devout Buddhist–meditation, kundalini, the whole bit. In fact, that is what attracted me to him as a sponsor, because he was not shouting about ‘God’ and so forth.
After I went to jail he abandoned me. No letters, a couple of phone calls (in one he told me never to call him again), and that’s it. When I got out I called him several times at work and left messages, but to my recollection, he never called me back. Gone with the wind, and my conscious clear.
That has all changed.
His email to me was all about this place, Me?ugorje, and how he has been a devout practicing Roman Catholic for ‘some time now’ (it hasn’t been that long) and is going to write a book about recovery using the messages of ‘Our Lady’, (i.e. you-know-who’s mama) in a ‘5 Step’ program, with testimonies from the recovered in the back, ‘…like the Big Book’. He wants my help. What is even spookier is that he said he was here at the beginning of June for a week. I was here then too…I am very happy we did not run into each other. That would have too weird, and he would have seen it as a sign from his god.
He asked to pass his email on to others so I passed it along to my friend Janet, with no promises. She responded this morning to me, and she said we’ll talk about it…
Frankly I wish to stay as far from this as possible. I don’t want to be part of something that has already been done, as in the Oxford group. My email to Will stated this in a very gentle way, as in, and I quote myself, ‘To be honest, I had never been to Me?ugorje, and although the devotion of some of the people who visit is admirable, it’s not my kind of place. I prefer a more balanced cultural experience.’
I hope he gets the hint.
To be truthful, I find his sudden devotion an indication that he is still grasping at straws with his spirituality. It is spooky, and for some reason I have a feeling he could be one of these dangerous, proselytizing zealots. I did tell him that it would be good to have coffee when I get back. I bet it never happens.
I fully expect that in three years he will have converted to Judaism.
Johnnyboy