Author: Johnnyboy

Johnnyboy is a queer recovering alcoholic. For the moment he is also the primary caregiver for his mother, who suffers from age-related cognitive impairment. She is happy as a lark and is surrounded by a crew of sober women which gives him the freedom he needs to get out of town. When he is not at home in Somewheresville, he is searching out the proper path to travel for happiness and joy. He is a photographer who believes in the digital age, but feels that film is still where its at. He has a darkroom and works in it. He is single and is in remarkably great physical condition for all the damage he has submitted his body to. His cardiologist is very happy. Johnnyboy is over the age of 35.

Daytripping…

Johnnyboy

So I have some days off. This is due primarily to the heat. No social service offices or doctors are seeing anyone. Too hot, must rest. It is July here in Herzegovina, and that means hot. Rain? Maybe…but it won’t cool things down.
Today I took a quick day trip to the small town of Po?itelj (Poe-che-tell-ya). It is about 10km from the Croatian border and about 60km from the Montenegrin frontier. It is a prime example of 15th century Turkish architecture and design, lying peacefully along the Neretva River. In 1992, when the war began, a group from the UN arrived there and declared the town safe from harm and undisturbed. No damage, nothing…
Almost a year later (July, 1993, btw), the HVO (Croatian Defense Council) entered the village. First they gathered the 3000 ethnic Muslims (men, women, and children) and shipped them off to a concentration camp. Many died…the number is unknown. After the village was clear, the HVO soldiers blew up the 500 year old mosque, toppling the minaret into the cupola, leveling the baths, and then proceeded to destroy most of the old home that had stood there for many generations. It must be noted that Christians and Muslims had lived side-by-side there for hundreds of years, even sharing a graveyard. The soldiers then stuck a large cross on top of the derelict Turkish fortress. Then they left, their defacing and despoiling finished. As the war progressed, Catholic Bosnian Croats were re-located there from around the country.
In 2000, the UN and its antiquities department, UNESCO, declared the town a World Heritage Spot. A little late, perhaps, but the HVO would never had paid any attention anyway. Since then the mosque has been completely rebuilt and most of the houses as well. The maddrasa that once schooled generations of Muslim students now teaches Catholic children. The Neretva River still flows alongside the village, the constant witness to the devastation and pain that this place has endured.
Enjoy the pictures.
Johnnyboy

Really amazing…Kinda weird…

Johnnyboy

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