An Unsuspecting Trap

Book excerpt: "An Unsuspecting Trap" is a compelling and candid account of the author's struggles with alcoholism and his exploration of the events that led him down a path of self-destruction. At his mother's funeral, George flashes back to the abuse, abandonment, and early frustrations that impoverished his personal growth and kept him imprisoned by his past for most of his adult life. The disparagement and lack of guidance that characterized his early years led to his truancy, low self-worth, a dramatic near-death experience in the Navy, and a long and agonizing bout with alcoholism. However, this story is not about one child being battered or even the drunkenness that followed, but rather the human heart. Not knowing why, but knowing just the same, it is about a child's resourceful spirit searching for its place in the sun. It is about freeing whatever is good from the wreckage of my broken dreams. Wishing for some of them to come true, it is about a chance at having a hopeful future, of being restored to full humanity, and yes, most of all, it is about the necessary conviction that in sharing these things with others, life will have peaceful promise for our children in the shrinking fast changing world we know today.