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Thursday, September 15, 2011

An official apology and why I should keep my nose out of other people's business

A couple days ago I posted a link to a blog I have been following. The writer was in the midst a really bad situation. It didn't turn out so well. It was kind of an invasion of privacy.
Some years ago I had a good friend who had a serious drug problem. I went through part of his 12 step program as a support person. I was not very useful/helpful to him. I was not the person he thought I was. It has always bothered me.
One thing I do remember is how alone he felt.
The writer of the blog to which I linked is really an amazing person and I am in many ways in awe of her. She has traveled through Europe and Central America with nothing but what she could carry and a camera. I am in total awe of anyone who can just ramble and be happy.
I don't have the link to her old blog in which she detailed her adventures but I think there was a link on her new blog to her photo stream which has the photos.
She also has a heroin addiction.
She has been clean for long periods of time. I just linked to her at a really bad time without providing much background information.
Somehow I thought it would bring her some sort of support or solidarity.
I think she should write a book.
She probably thinks I am a stalker...
I apologize...

7 comments:

  1. No good deed goes unpunished; the devil sees to it. Your heart's in the right place and you apparently got out of the way when you saw it was best. What else can a person do?

    ReplyDelete
  2. hey,
    i just wanted to clarify that your original post was fine, i didn't see a problem with it at all. you explained that i was once a promising young woman who had screwed her life up with heroin. i guess the main issue is that the blog i'm writing at now is only a few months old so it doesn't contain a lot of background info (not that anyone would have necessarily read back that far). but if you read back in february - may (when i was clean) you'll see who i really am, who i am when i'm at my best.

    but there was nothing wrong with your post. you posted it because i was going through a tough time and you were thinking about me, or whatever; the only problem was that your readers hadn't been reading my blog when i was doing well, so they concluded that my life was "a waste" etc. if all i read was that one entry, i would probably conclude that too.

    anyway, you didn't need to apologize. ever since i became a heroin addict in 2003 i have been honest in my various blogs about the problems i was going through, and i always end up with some people leaving negative comments about how i'm a worthless loser who should get HIV and die, etc etc. if other people were as open about their problems as i am, they would get a lot of negative comments too.

    i hope you didn't delete that post, i thought it was cool that you wrote about me. if you did delete it, feel free to write another one...

    oh yeah and by the way, i walked across spain, not mexico, when i was 18. it was 500 km from the french border to santiago de compostela and we almost died in the mountains because we didn't have any food or warm enough sleeping bags. maybe you were thinking about the time i drove down the baja penninsula in mexico from san diego to cabo san lucas, a 5 day drive through the desert. that was pretty amazing too...

    ReplyDelete
  3. oh, i see you did delete it. that's too bad. if you want to write about people who are heroin addicts, you've got to get used to the negative reactions from people. even though a large percentage of the population is addicted to a substance (including alcohol and cigarettes), people are extremely quick to judge others as being weak, stupid, a wasted life, etc. but plenty of addicts eventually recover and rejoin the productive members of society. just because i'm an addict now doesn't mean i'll be one forever, and my life has not been wasted yet. as long as i'm still alive i have a chance to make it out of this hell. on sunday i'll be going back to my parents' house to get clean (they won't give me money but they do let me stay there), and after that i'll be starting a new life in portland. i am pretty excited about it, actually.

    feel free to read my blog: http://www.findingthelimit.org

    <3 becky

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nothing has been deleted that I know of. It is just a couple posts back. If blogger dropped a comment then I can't do anything about it. It is gone. You have to resend it.
    Spain not Mexico, my mistake.
    I thought there was also a story about getting robbed somewhere in Europe and making it back to the USA on .35 cents but I don't quite remember.
    I plan on sticking to writing about Alfalfa in the future...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hey Budd E, regret life on the road has kept me from the back and forth here. Becky sounds tough, smart and honest and well able to dismiss the judgmental. We all have our demons. I wish her well in pdx, whatever she tries next.
    All alfalfa makes Jack a dull blogger.
    Sharing in lives very unlike my own is what keeps me revisiting the
    blogospere when I could be getting stuff done. Compassion and respect are the passport here.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous-yeah this is all getting a bit too serious around here, but if you are going to be in the hug, stop giving me the reach-around, it kind of freaks me out...

    ReplyDelete

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