Working Definition of Recovery and Description of Systems of Care Elements

Quotes of the week

You can’t talk your way out of a problem that you behaved your way into. Phil McDaniel

Life is a banquet and most of us are starving to death~ Helen Keller

"If literature isn't everything, it's not worth a single hour of someone's trouble." Jean-Paul Sartre

Custom will reconcile people to any atrocity; and fashion will drive them to acquire any custom.

~William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of King Richard the Third (King Richard at I, ii)~

Even if you think life is a cosmic joke, it isn’t apparently one that we’re in on. ~some dern philosopher

Meditation of the week

The big majority of Americans, who are comparatively well off, have developed an ability to have enclaves of people living in the greatest misery without almost noticing them.

~Gunnar Myrdal

Poem of the Week

The Speaker

by Louis Jenkins

The speaker points out that we don't really have much of
a grasp of things, not only the big things, the important
questions, but the small everyday things. "How many steps
up to your front door? What kind of tree grows in your
backyard? What is the name of your district representative?
What is your wife's shoe size? Can you tell me the color of your
sweetheart's eyes? Do you remember where you parked
the car?" The evidence is overwhelming. Most of us never
truly experience life. "We drift through life in a daydream,
missing the true richness and joy that life has to offer." When
the speaker has finished we gather around to sing a few
inspirational songs. You and I stand at the back of the group
and hum along since we have forgotten most of the words.

Author of the week

On this day in 1964, Jean-Paul Sartre (books by this author) declined the Nobel Prize in literature. He was the first person in history to voluntarily and unrelentingly refuse a Nobel Prize.

Sartre had announced that he did not wish to receive the prize. When he learned that he was being seriously considered, he wrote to the Nobel Institute asking that his name be removed from the list of candidates, saying that he wouldn't accept the prize if it were given to him. But the Swedish Academy had decided, and they gave him the prize anyway, noting in their citation: "The fact that he has declined this distinction does not in the least modify the validity of the award." Later, a Swedish Academy spokesman said that even if he didn't collect the money, Sartre would be a Nobel laureate, and that "the academy is guided not by a possible winner's wishes but by the decision of its members."

Sartre had not wanted to cause a scandal by declining the prize, nor did he want to offend the Swedish Academy, which had chosen him. After it was awarded, he prepared a statement noting that he always turned down "official distinctions." It was his belief, he said, that "a writer must refuse to allow himself to be transformed into an institution, even if it takes place in the most honorable form." He said that it wasn't fair to the reader if he carried the authority of an institution along with his name. He pointed out, "It is not the same thing if I sign Jean-Paul Sartre or if I sign Jean-Paul Sartre, Noble Prize winner." Sartre had previously turned down his home country's highest accolade, the French Legion of Honor, and he'd also declined a tenured teaching position at the prestigious Collège de France. The Nobel Prize came with a large chunk of money (it was $53,000 in 1964; today it's about one million dollars), which Sartre — who was not at all rich — had to forgo when he declined the prize.

Best of Craig’s List of the week

best of craigslist > philadelphia > IN A WELL, NEED LADDER

good idea of the week

New Vaccines Are Being Developed Against Addiction and Relapse

By NIDA Director, NORA D. VOLKOW, M.D.

Since the first vaccine, for smallpox, was developed more than 200 years ago, immunization has proven to be a powerful weapon in the fight against infectious disease. Today, NIDA-supported researchers are using modern molecular biology to create vaccines against another deadly disease—addiction to drugs such as cocaine, nicotine, phencyclidine (PCP), and methamphetamine. Read more