With a Lot of Help from Our Friends
The Politics of Alcoholism
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The Myth of Perfection Ralph first gave a long discussion of his new understanding of the issue in The Golden Book of Resentments, which he published in 1955, twelve years after joining Alcoholics Anonymous. He gave that section of the booklet the provocative title “The Myth of Perfection,” and began it with a quote from St. Augustine: “Let us admit our imperfections so we can then begin to work toward perfection.” Then he explained what that statement meant in the simple Hoosier language of the small towns and countryside of Indiana: “There ain’t nobody perfect in this world . . . . All of our lives we expected perfection, and when we again and again found instead imperfection, faults, failings, even serious ones, we became ‘disillusioned’ — which in reality was only a vicarious form of self-pity . . . . “We first thought our parents were perfect. Then we found out they weren’t! Frustration number one. Then we met the gal (or guy) of our dreams. And think we to us: here is perfection. And then we married her (or him)! Frustration number two . . . . “Then along came our children. And without doubt they were perfect. ‘Isn’t he the most perfect thing that ever lived?’ And then the policeman brought T. Jonathan home one day . . . . Our child? Never! But it was our child. More frustration . . . . “But we held on to the mirage to the very last: We were perfect, and if you didn’t believe it, all you had to do was to ask us! . . . “The truth? No one is perfect . . . . Like a little Scriptural proof? ‘If anyone among you says he is without sin, he is a liar and the truth is not in him.’ Just a longer way of saying: There ain’t nobody perfect.” Perfection is a myth based on spiritual pride. But in fact we will never have a perfect family, perfect friends, perfect business associates, or a perfect body. Sometimes we will get sick, or have aches and pains. We will also never have perfect emotional lives. Fr. Ralph comments: “How many come to us and complain: ‘I have been trying so long — for years — to control myself and I still get upset, I still get jittery, I still get angry, and I still get nervous.’ Well, what did they expect? Perfect control? Perfection?” This is the alcoholic mind at work, Fr. Ralph says, the ‘persistent struggle to reach that smooth feeling.’ When alcohol stops doing it, some people then turn to drugs. Ralph tried to use combinations of alcohol, barbiturates, and bromide compounds to help him get through each day — never too keyed up, never too depressed, never upset or disappointed by anything that happened — but just sailing along, as it were, on a waveless sea under a cloudless sky. But that was not the way the real world ever worked, no matter how hard we tried to make continual microadjustments in our mood with alcohol and other chemicals: “There will be days when we will be feeling wonderful and there will be days when we will be feeling lousy; and there will be days when one is quick to anger and days when nothing upsets; and there will be days when we feel mean as all get out and days when we feel like doing a good turn even for our worst enemy. But then, life and emotions are like that, very uneven and imperfect, even in the best of men.” We also need to remember that perfection is a myth when we get too worried about the wandering thoughts running through our heads. We may even be kneeling in church and trying our best to maintain a worshipful and prayerful state of mind, when a wildly inappropriate train of thought suddenly pops into our heads and threatens to lead us into total distraction. Angry thoughts, envious thoughts, sexual thoughts, the yearnings of worldly ambition, and temptations of every other sort may erupt without warning in the minds of even the holiest of us, and throw us into at least a brief spiritual struggle before we can lay them once more to rest. Even Jesus himself was not exempt: the story of his active ministry began with the story of the temptation in the wilderness and ended with the story of his temptation in the garden of Gethsemane. And as for the rest of us, as Fr. Ralph pointed out, “We may live to be a hundred, but we shall still have distractions, and ‘bad’ thoughts, and ‘screwy’ thoughts, until we’re dead.” Ralph was speaking partly to his own spiritual problems of course: his tendency to scrupulosity, the sense of personal failure which he had when he first entered A.A., and so on. But he found that this message also spoke to a central spiritual problem found among large numbers of Catholic alcoholics. It is amazing how many newcomers to A.A. who are of Catholic background are initially terrified by the spiritual dimension of the program because of their belief that they have sinned so wickedly against God — not just by their out of control drinking but in many other ways — that God would never hear their prayers for help. Most of them need, not being scolded and berated for their wickedness and supposed lack of will power and ordinary responsibility, but constant reassurance that God loves them and is going to keep on helping them recover, even if it takes months and years to begin getting their lives back in order again. And then Ralph discovered to his amazement, that up to sixty per cent of the people attending his weekend spiritual retreats were Protestants. They were just as terrified of God (and of the demands of real holiness) as the Catholics were!
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About the Book
This book tells the inside story of government attempts to deal with the American alcohol problem from 1970 to 1980, the most important decade in the history of alcohol legislation since Prohibition, with the famous Hughes Act as its centerpiece. We meet the friends and supporters of Harold Hughes, the charismatic senator and former governor from Iowa, and Marty Mann, the beloved "first lady of Alcoholics Anonymous."
The author, herself a major participant in these events, describes the struggles and triumphs of this small band of recovered alcoholics and their friends as they bared their souls before congressional hearings and succeeded in convincing a Congress and three reluctant Presidents to support this effort. Nancy Olson offers us a unique behind-the-scenes view of the alcoholism legislation that changed America during the 1970s. Both those interested in alcoholism and those intrigued by the legislative process will find this book fascinating. Well-documented and clearly written, this book tells a story that has long needed telling. Ernest Kurtz, author of Not-God: A History of Alcoholics Anonymous Written in an engaging style, the book includes vivid accounts of incidents and exchanges, with a cast list including members of Congress and their staffs, federal administrators, scientists, and representatives of the alcoholism movement and of the alcohol industries. The book is essential reading for anyone interested in the modern development of thinking and action about alcoholism and alcohol issues in the U.S. Robin Room, Professor and Director of the Centre for Social Research on Alcohol and Drugs, Stockholm University, SwedenAbout the Author
Shortly before his death in 1996, former Senator Harold Hughes of Iowa asked Nancy Olson to write this book, telling the story of what they and their friends had done to try to help the plight of alcoholics in the United States. Olson, like Hughes a recovered alcoholic, had been involved in the alcoholism field since 1965. In 1969, he appointed her to the staff of the newly created Special Subcommittee on Alcoholism and Narcotics and she served on Hughes? staff until he left the Senate in 1975. During this period the epoch-making ?Hughes Act? became law.
Because of the many alcoholics and their families who contacted Hughes? office for help, she and the Senator in effect ran the first, albeit informal, Employee Assistance Program for Members of Congress, their families, and their staffs. They also counseled many high-ranking government and military personnel, and on numerous occasions even strangers who walked in off the street. In 1975 Olson was re-appointed to the staff by Senator Harrison A. Williams of New Jersey, and thus also was involved in drafting the 1976 and 1979 amendments to the Hughes Act. During this period she also had primary staff responsibility for congressional oversight of the activities of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. She resigned from the Senate staff in 1980, after which she briefly served as a part-time Washington representative for the Hazelden Foundation, while preparing to enter a monastery of the Visitation of Holy Mary. In 1982, for health reasons, she returned to secular life in Washington where she worked as a legislative analyst and lobbyist until her retirement in 1995. She now devotes her full time to research and writing, and is a popular speaker on alcoholism both nationally and internationally.