Touched by Xara X

[GroWeb]

I work in a treatment centre for people with alcohol, drug, gambling and/or sex addictions, and/or eating disorders. It's sort of the Canadian equivalent of the Betty Ford Centre. As our clients begin to experience their newly regained life of "sobriety", they become extremely sensitive to the emotional aspect of all their experiences, and sobriety-related ideas take on a profound and almost sacred character for them.

One of our recovering alcohol addicts drew the attached picture, which he calls a "slogan tree". On the plaque hanging from each branch, one may write in any one of the numerous slogans used as recovery tools by members of twelve-step fellowships, such as Alcoholics Anonymous. The "H.A.L.T." at the bottom warns the addict that to remain hungry, angry, lonely, or tired without doing anything about it can place one in danger of relapse. The barrel is an empty beer keg, whose contents (memories of the horrors of active alcoholism) fertilize the soil under the newly established tree of recovery.

In the Xara-created image attached to the following message, I traced my friend's drawing and Xara-ized it. Today when I gave him a printout, he was thrilled about it -- so much so that he has decided to frame it as a memento of his time in treatment.