In the last four years of sobriety, I have lived approximately fourteen years. I had a second child. A beautiful little girl named Aria. My heart. She’s two, so thankfully I have plenty of time before she starts dating—which is good, because as a Jew in America these days, I’m already well on my way to being sufficiently armed by the time some terrified sixteen-year-old shows up at my front door. For entirely unrelated reasons, of course. Becoming her father was one of the gr

I had a dream my mother hugged me. Not just hugged me. Held me. Tightly. With genuine care behind her intent. Like a new mother holding an infant, she embraced her adult son with the intention of somehow making everything okay again. There was no hesitation in it. No awkwardness. No history. She just grabbed me and held me. And I let her. That’s probably what fucked me up the most when I woke up. Because some part of me has wanted that hug for a very long time. My relationshi