Beyond Addiction

I'm no Trekkie who revels in the fictional universe of "Star Trek" trivia or attends annual conventions of pointy-eared fans in tacky hotels or has an autographed photo of Captain Kirk and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise.

And I rarely go to theaters to watch newly released movies anymore. So I don't know how audiences react to what's on the big screen.

Finally, I haven't cried over a flick since the opening scenes of "Saving Private Ryan" in 1998. In fact, that just might have been the most recent movie I had seen in a theater. (And I still get choked up when I watch it on DVD.)

Thus, I was totally unprepared and caught off-guard when I went to see the new "Star Trek" movie last week with my two teenage sons, Thomas and Henry, at our local theater, in St. Paul, Minn. It's an action-packed thriller from start to finish, and I enjoyed it. The audience openly cheered at key moments and applauded when it was over. The hairs on the back of my head stood up, and I even shed a few tears when an aging Leonard Nimoy reprised his role as an aging Mr. Spock, and suddenly I realized that Vulcans grow old and so do I.

There was an even bigger take-home message for me. The movie goes back in time to explain how a young half-human, Spock, and a restless kid, Kirk, and the rest of the gang grew up to come together on the deck of the starship Enterprise. Now it all made perfect sense to me why Spock first had to master his emotions with his mind to become an effective first officer and how Kirk's propensity to chase skirts served him well when it was time for him to risk the warp-speed pursuit of evildoers in the universe's far reaches, where no man had gone before. The movie's plot closed the loop by going back to the beginning and reminding us that human (and Vulcan) character is made up of a galaxy of experience, good and bad, from the moment we are born, no matter what planet we call home.

So what in (this) world does "Star Trek" have to do with a column focused on addiction-related issues?

Each day, I get at least a handful of letters or e-mails from readers lamenting the toll of addiction on themselves or others.

None arrived this week. Instead, three people (thanks to Jay in Duluth, Minn., Tatiana in Naples, Fla., and Fran from Manchester, England) weighed in urging me to focus more of my columns on the positive side of recovery. Their messages hit home when I was watching the movie.

"For years I was sure the worst thing that could happen to a nice guy like me would be that I would turn out to be an alcoholic," wrote a doctor whose story is a key chapter in the treatise of Alcoholics Anonymous, known as "The Big Book." "Today I find it's the best thing that has ever happened to me."

Indeed, there is a tremendous advantage to meeting head-on what threatens to destroy us. For addicts and alcoholics like me, that means no longer running from issues. Instead, we should turn and face into the wind. Like a kite, we can rise up against that gale. And use the experience to our advantage. From adversity comes the opportunity for hope and healing, because one day sober is worth every day drunk or high.

Or, as Spock so inspiringly recites near the close of the movie as he flashes that famous Vulcan salute for peace, "Live long and prosper." Yep, you guessed it. That was the tear-jerker line for me.

William C. Moyers is the vice president of external affairs for the Hazelden Foundation and the author of "Broken," his best-selling memoirs. Please send your questions to William Moyers at William@WilliamMoyers.com. To find out more about William Moyers and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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