They asked him, an alcoholic, not to attend his friend’s funeral because of his drinking. Unfortunately, I don’t have the details of what transpired in this event. I have watched alcoholics and drug addicts all my life and I know how bad it can get for everybody. But who doesn’t deserve to attend their friend’s funeral? Funerals are when people are supposed to pull together and bond while remembering how precious life is. They are a time to grieve and reach out to others that understand your grief because they feel it too. To hold and be held. To be human and cry and feel pain. Anyone of us could be taken in the next moment. And in that moment, suddenly perspectives change. You will never see that person again.
These are the types of segregations, disconnects, discriminations, rejections and judgments that are going on in our families, friendships, and communities. The emotional, verbal, and non-verbal abuse that scars a person’s mind deeply but nobody can see it. That is, until it crops up in us as an addiction or some behavior people do not have time to deal with or don’t want to deal with because its too inconvenient. Wouldn’t it be easier and less painful just to love each other than to deal with the pain of addictions?
How can we deny people the basic human needs of love and grief? Where has our compassion gone to?
In Through The Out Door 