March 6, 2024
Dear Hossein,
Thank you for your latest communication. I find each of these letters informative and inspiring.
You have learned a most valuable lesson in Congress 60: Financial resources are essential for the survival of any NGO, but too little money, too much money, ill-timed money, and tainted (controlling) money can each prove so corruptive as to lead to the implosion of the organization. But beyond money, you are correct in noting that ultimately the ultimate proof is that the NGO’s services or products must be determined to have value in the lives of individuals, families, and communities. The ultimate test of Congress 60 has been in the testing of its methods over these many years. That prolonged experiment has provided living proof of its methods and their value.
What a busy time of the year for Congress 60, with the tree planting ceremonies followed by Ramadan and Nowruz.
I was so pleased with the videos of the music lessons you shared with me. Building a Congress 60 orchestra is a major undertaking and my deepest congratulations to those who have volunteered to begin their lessons. All great ventures begin with small steps and these early lessons will become part of the larger history of Congress 60. I expect the orchestra to one day bring acclaim to Congress 60 as its athletes have.
I fully concur with your thoughts on the stages of recovery. Recovery is like a precious diamond that requires time and pressure for its creation—time for healing of the brain and body and the pressure from the Congress 60 community to rebuild one’s character and relationships (worldview and the “art of living”). Your collective experience has taught you the minimum period required for each of these functions. The failure of much addiction treatment is threefold—1) an improper or ineffective healing agent, 2) application of this agent for an inadequate period of time, and 3) failure to provide a milieu in which reconstruction of character and relationships can occur and become durable. In contrast, Congress 60 addresses all three of these dimensions.
Regarding stages of recovery, I have been thinking about a very early stage I call “precovery”—an incubation stage unfolding during active addiction that increases one’s receptiveness to recovery initiation. Most addicted people enter recovery at late stages of addiction; I am interested in how we could reach such people at earlier stages of recovery and shorten what for many is a long addiction career. I think people in recovery can play an important role as recovery carriers or recovery champions by spreading the good news of recovery to those still addicted. My hope is that the scientific study of this precovery period and related outreach methods may reveal how this could be done on a community-wide basis. For example, it would be interesting to know how many people entering Congress 60 do so based on their contact with current and former Congress 60 members and how the influencing process unfolded. I would be interested on your thoughts on this.
Please extend my warm regards to your family and to all members of Congress 60.
Friends and Brothers Forever