May 5

May 5 – AM

Page 133, The Family Afterward, Chapter 9

But this does not mean that we disregard human health measures.  God has abundantly supplied this world with fine doctors, psychologists, and practitioners of various kinds.  Do not hesitate to take your health problems to such persons.  Most of them give freely of themselves, that their fellows may enjoy sound minds and bodies.  Try to remember that though God has wrought miracles among us, we should never belittle a good doctor or psychiatrist.  Their services are often indispensable in treating a newcomer and in following his case afterward.

May 5 – PM

Page 37-38, More About Alcoholism, Chapter 3

Our behavior is as absurd and incomprehensible with respect to the first drink as that of an individual with a passion, say, for jay-walking.  He gets a thrill out of skipping in front of fast-moving vehicles.  He enjoys himself for a few years in spite of friendly warnings. Up to this point you would label him as a foolish chap having queer ideas of fun.  Luck then deserts him and he is slightly injured several times in succession.  You would expect him, if he were normal, to cut it out.  Presently he is hit again and this time has a fractured skull. Within a week after leaving the hospital a fast-moving trolley car breaks his arm.  He tells you he has decided to stop jay-walking for good, but in a few weeks he breaks both legs.
On through the years this conduct continues, accompanied by his continual promises to be careful or to keep off the streets altogether.  Finally, he can no longer work, his wife gets a divorce and he is held up to ridicule.  He tries every known means to get the jay-walking idea out of his head.  He shuts himself up in the asylum, hoping to mend his ways. But the day he comes out he races in front of a fire engine, which breaks his back.  Such a man would be crazy, wouldn’t he?
You may think our illustration is too ridiculous.  But is it?  We, who have been through the wringer, have to admit if we substituted alcoholism for jay-walking, the illustration would fit us exactly.  However intelligent we may have been in other respects, where alcohol has been involved, we have been strangely insane.  It’s strong language—but isn’t it true?