December 24, 2025
Dear Hossein,
I was delighted to receive your latest letter and the report prepared by Traveler Mansour and the video taken by Traveler Saeed. I was amazed at the number of Congress 60 members who participated in the seed-planting camp and the warm camaraderie shared by all. I have shared these activities with recovery advocacy organizations here in the U.S. and some are showing increased interest in such community service projects and the potential of organizing a Recovery Corps of volunteers to work on such projects.
I am always pleased to hear you are doing well. Rita and I are also doing well in spite of up and down health challenges. We are busy preparing for family gatherings for the holidays and the traditional gift exchanges.
Thank you for the update on your research activities. I am impressed by how much progress you are making and your efforts to disseminate the research results through various publications. My congratulations to you on acceptance of the papers on opium and amphetamine and submission of the fentanyl paper. The paper review and acceptance processes seem to be taking longer and longer. Like your fentanyl paper, one of my papers recently required two minor revisions that took weeks of review in between. I look forward to publication of the many articles you have had accepted that await publication in 2026.
My work on the potential for personal and family flourishing as an outcome of addiction recovery continues each week. I have many earlier studies yet to review but hope to have a draft of the paper completed in early 2025. When completed, I will send some excerpts for your review. The paper suggests the need to study individuals/families in addiction recovery who get better than well—who go on to achieve remarkable levels of health, personal achievement, and social contribution. My thought is that such studies confirming this experience would be a source of great motivation for individuals and families seeking recovery and that it would have important implications for the design of addiction treatment and recovery support services. I would be most interested in any ideas you wish to share on your observations of flourishing among members of Congress 60.
Once we receive final acceptance on our last co-authored paper, I will work with Dr. Casey Sarapas and Candace Mouton to proceed with work on the second paper we have planned. I regret the delay on that paper created by the cuts in research funding in the U.S. that forced reallocation of Casey and Candace’s time on this project. My hope is that this will be resolved in early 2026 so that our work can continue. I so appreciate the cooperation we have received from everyone at Congress 60 who has helped us with this work so far.
I try to keep up on general news from Iran and had read about the shortfalls of rain. I was pleased to hear of the snow and rain you have recently received. Here in Southwest Florida, we are also far below our average rainfall and there are many drought and fire warnings as we are now in the months where little rain is likely until rainy season arrives in June.
Well, my dearest friend, we embark on yet another year of our work together. When we first met in London even for that few minutes, I felt there was something special about our connection, but could not then anticipate all the work we would do in the coming years and the joy we would experience through these collaborations. We have had the privilege of doing important work together and inspiring each other. On the brink of the new year, I wish you, your family, and all members of Congress 60 a year of health, happiness, and service.
Friends and brothers forever