Healing from religion

Have you ever asked, “Wonder why I haven’t heard of this guy before?”  That was my thought when learn­ing of the accom­plish­ments of Winchester native Joe Jackson.  He was a not­ed author, play­wright, Hollywood screen­writer and pub­li­cist, and Academy Award nom­i­nee.  Called one of filmdom’s great­est sce­nario and dia­logue writ­ers, “with a longer list of full-length talk­ing pic­tures to his cred­it than any oth­er writer.”  Locally it was said that Jackson was one of the most suc­cess­ful men ever to leave this city.  So what was his story? 

In the last year, sev­er­al peo­ple in recov­ery I know have “fall­en off the wag­on.” I’ve seen a return of dis­or­dered eat­ing in lots of my yoga stu­dents. My class sizes have swelled and my pri­vate somat­ic ther­a­py ses­sions* are wait­list­ed. I’m hear­ing over and over how the things that once helped peo­ple heal no longer feel like enough. How their talk ther­a­py and med­i­ta­tion prac­tices are no longer pro­vid­ing the same amount of insight and relief. They are baf­fled as to why, despite doing “all the right things,” they still feel stuck, over­whelmed, and on edge.