“People whose method of coping with life has been to escape it have to learn, almost from scratch, how to live. . . . It’s a long, hard and essentially spiritual process.” So writes Danny Duncan Collum in “Learning How to Live Life (on Life’s Terms)” (Sojourners, April 2019)

Collum, a writer based in Kentucky, comments about a film Recovery Boys, an effort to aid young men in recovering from drug addiction.

Boys attempt to kick the habit while housed at a remote farm. They take care of animals and crops and spend time in meditation. Some are apparently making it; others have a harder time.

Collum’s article suggests the need for purpose if one is to avoid, not only drug destruction, but all sorts of other ills. We can be drug free yet addicted to wealth or power or pleasure. Somehow, to overcome, or to prevent such “addiction” in the first place, we must be protected by some purpose bigger than ourselves.

It is, as Collum says, a spiritual battle.