There but for the grace of God

Yesterday, Hunter Biden was convicted on the three felony charges stemming from his lying on his firearm application where he didn't divulge that he suffered from addiction.

About the charges I will say only this: a jury of his peers found him guilty, even though many thought this was a waste of government time and resources. Unlike Republicans, I won't say that the case was rigged and this was done only to damage Hunter's father.

No. I want to speak about addiction. And courage. And grace. And love.

With many thanks to the universe, I've never been addicted to anything, nor has anyone I've loved. So I can't speak from personal experience about Hunter's struggles. As a librarian, I encounter men and women like him, either in the grip of addiction or recovering from it, fighting it tooth and nail every day. Sometimes they win. I remember a patron who the last time I saw him before the pandemic had been clean for two years and was getting into housing. But how many countless don't make it? Hunter Biden is a success story, because he continues to fight. As he said in his statement:

A man like Hunter Biden doesn't take his life for granted, even though he's son to the most powerful man in the world. He knows how quickly things can unravel.

And, as he said, he can't have done it without the support of those who love him. One cannot fight demons alone. One needs friends and family to prop one up, to give encouragement, to give aid and comfort. It takes courage to admit that you are on a path to death, and to pull yourself out of that trajectory. 

But even though I've never suffered from addiction, yes, there but for the grace of God go I. Misfortune can befall anyone. Anyone can make bad decisions, which lead to other bad decisions. Anyone can spiral down, no matter how "strong" they think they are. If you are alone, you fight alone, and you will find that your vaunted strength is as nothing. One reed can break easily. A bundle of reeds, bound together, can withstand a storm.

"Recovery is possible by the grace of God." But even more important is the grace you give yourself. The grace of those who love you. The admission that no one is perfect, everyone needs help, everyone needs that grace which allows you to draw a line under your past mistakes and set out on a new road. Yes, we must remember our past so that we can move into the future. But we must not be so weighed down by that past so that we are paralyzed into inaction. We have to give ourselves the grace to be better, and not mire ourselves in our errors.

And love. And love. Look at that picture above. That's pure, unconditional love. It is something which so many people fighting addiction don't have. They don't have it for themselves, and they don't receive it from others. Again, you can't fight demons on your own. Yes, only you can decide to fight them. But without help, without the love of those around you, you will fail. No one is strong enough to make it on their own. Every day I see people trying to do so at work. And, eventually, I stop seeing them, as they disappear into their black holes. Love is prerequisite to triumphing over your troubles. Without it you will be subsumed.

I wish Hunter Biden well. I hope he continues to display the same strength he has as he's been dragged into the muck in an attempt to damage his father. I send good thoughts to him and those who love him. In the end, they're who matter, not what natterers on television say. Real life exists beyond their purview. It always has.

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