On New Year’s Eve, Resolutions, and the Journey to Happiness

with lampshades on their heads, but they are not drunk. I hear them singing at the top of their lungs with their arms entwined, but they are stone-cold-sober. I see them dancing with wild abandon to heart-stopping music, but they are not slurring their words. I see everyone as I was when I was six, kicking their ballet-trained legs over other people’s heads with wild abandon- or watching, laughing gleefully at a friends’ wild antics. I see them hugging their friends right in public with bear hugs that pick them up off of their feet. I see people loving the experience of being alive. So that when I tell people to stop drinking and drugging, I don’t want to lessen the joy of people’s lives. I want to heighten it. I don’t want to take away, but rather to add. I seek to enhance good feelings in such a way that there is more fulfillment, and more downright happiness. I seek only that people replace the artificial pleasure of drugs and alcohol with the true pleasure of life. And that those who can do this easily, also support those who struggle.

Alcohol and drugs hit the pleasure centers of the brain, bringing us pure and unadulterated good feelings. Then they destroy us piecemeal, as people and as a society. We want good feelings, and there is nothing wrong with that. The only problem is that we turn to the poison of alcohol and drugs to get them. But as people find their joy in life instead of drugs they will find that this natural happiness is better by far than any other. And when we all find our pleasure naturally, we can go outdoors on New Year’s Eve without fear.

There are many powerful tools that I write about for helping people on their journey to true happiness and fulfillment. The Landmark Forum is one. Alanon and the 12-step prograns are others. The journey does not happen in a moment. And the road may be rocky at times. But it is the journey of a lifetime. And it is the one journey that is worth taking. It is the journey to your life, your happiness, and your joy.

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