A few times a week I found myself glued to a chair in Retorno’s visitors’ center participating in yet another “addiction prevention” seminar. I justified my continual attendance at these lectures and workshops by telling myself it was the Hebrew — the language barrier must have caused me to miss some small but critical idea some crucial turn of phrase that I’d need at some later point so I needed to hear it one more time.
Honestly? I was digesting relating internalizing wondering processing integrating. I had to assimilate all this new information and weave it into the tapestry of knowledge I’d acquired over the years. My psych degree gave me a lot of theoretical knowledge but was of little practical use. My years as a teacher and then mother were the ongoing impetus for my continued education acquired through classes lectures and lots and lots of reading.
For my first “prevention lecture ” I joined a group of 40 teachers from several schools within the same district. I was expecting something along the lines of the “Just Say No” campaign made popular by Nancy Reagan in the 1980s. Or an egg frying in a pan (“This is your brain on drugs”).
Nothing doing. No signs no slogans no fear campaigns.
