There Is Still a Solution
Step Two, ninety years later: Joe Van Wie reflects on shared recovery, thoughts and emotions, social class, and the ocean-liner metaphor in Alcoholics Anonymous.
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Essays on recovery, culture, and being human. Explore the ideas, questions, and stories behind the work.
What If Pain Doesn’t Have To Be The Fuel
A reflection on intelligence, progress, and whether meaningful change has to begin with suffering. Joe considers another source of motivation: curiosity, connection, and the possibility of a better life.
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Recovery Capital: Wealth That Actually Matters
Recovery involves more than willpower. Joe explores the value of relationships, resources, stability, and opportunities that people can draw on as they build a life in recovery.
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Psychosis Lite
An essay connecting questions about perception and shared reality with substance use and modern culture. Joe begins with the complex range of experiences described as psychosis.
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Thanksgiving, The Artifice of Gratitude and The Practice That Saves Us
Gratitude can feel difficult when it is expected on cue. Drawing on memories of recovery meetings, Joe explores the difference between performing thankfulness and practicing it.
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The Truth in the Whole: A Holistic Definition of Recovery at Fellowship House
Using a philosophical starting point, Joe considers why a person’s recovery needs to be understood in the context of their whole life, including relationships and experience.
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Sisyphus, the Boot Camp, and the Absurd Mercy of Recovery
Memories of a teenage boot camp meet the story of Sisyphus in this personal essay. Joe reflects on punishment, repetition, and the search for meaning in recovery.
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New OS for an Old Mind
Joe describes the ongoing practice of self-examination in Step Ten. The essay explores how noticing thoughts and reactions can become part of daily life.
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Coffee & Cigarettes: The Original Recovery Communion
An essay about the familiar rituals around early recovery meetings and the connection people found in them. Joe reflects on belonging through the ordinary details of shared experience.
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God As We Don’t Understand Him: Recovery for the Non-Religious
An exploration of recovery for people who do not identify with religious belief. Joe considers how spiritual language can create barriers and how people find connection and meaning.
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The Impact of Television Series on Understanding Culture, Human Behavior and Recovery
Television can let viewers see a family from several perspectives at once. Joe uses The Sopranos to explore emotional complexity, culture, and the stories people tell about themselves.
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