A Debtor's Odyssey

My name is Odyssesus and I am a business owner, underearner, and debtor. You may have heard Homer tell my take isn his greate epic. Being a debtor, I didn't have a written contract with him, so lost 4,000 years of royalities and movie rights. I call upon Zues to let me share my experience, strength and hope, that my story could be of service to other debtors. How can it be that the hero of the seige of Troy and the King of Ithaca can be a debtor? Let me tell you my tale, or as Homer titled it, "Owe Debt, See". I have many years of recovery in what Greeks call Dodeca-Step work. I have worked my program for nearly five millennia. And in just a century of two I'll finally be out of debt. Let me begin with what it was like. All the riches of my kingdom could not save me from overspending. When I saw a new javelin, I had to buy it just to put it in the closet with all the others, the price tags still on. I was comparing my insides with Achilles' outsides, even though Achilles was a heel!

With war comes the prospect of looting, and the siege of Troy was irresistible to me. For ten years I ignored my family and lands, chasing the big deal. It seemed the gods were smiling on me, for after the fall of Troy, I headed for home with my ships filled with riches. I was insatiable, and went on to sack one city after another. Yes, I was a sacks addict. Our disease is cunning, baffling and powerful. I was blown off course to the land of Cyclops. Cyclops trapped us and started eating my men. As I did my 4th Step, I saw that I went to his island intent on self enrichment, trespassed into his cave, and was not better that a common thief. I blinded his eye so that we might escape, but I was to pay for my self-will run riot.

For Cyclops was the son of Poseidon and besseched the Master of the Seas to prevent me from returning home. And mighty Poseidon declared that I would be detained a every turn, suffer every plight, see my comrades destroyed, and find my home troubled. My next ten years were full of woe.

We finally made it within sight of Ithaca. I had been given a sack imprisoning the energies of all the winds. But in a mement of compulsiveness, the sack was opened and the winds blew us off course again. What debtor amoung us has not been blown off cours by unleashing the wind of ill-considered words? We next cam to the land of the witch, Circe, who turned my crew into swine, expressing their true nature as debtors. Then we wer blown accress the River of Ocean to the Halls of Hades. Like so many debtors, I had reached the depths of hell. That was my bottom. The soul of the prophet Teiresias spoke to me. "Odysseus, you are in search of an easy way home. But the path to recovery is one step at a time. Your very life depends on your serenity, courage, and wisdom." I had heard similar prophesy before, but this time I heeded the warnings. My descent into hell was really the beginning of my return to the light.

Many test lay before me. I began the slow process of making amends. To the few cre members that still survived, I said, "Guys, we my be ten years late, and thousands of miles off course, but I' taking responsibility for my side of the street." Next, I had to resist the Siren call of credit card companies to dash my ship upon the rocks of unsecured credit. Then I had to navigat the dangerous straights Scylla and Charybdis, the high cliffs of overspending and the whirlpool of underearning. My recovery was not yet strong enough, and I lost my ship and was set adrift across the graveyard of sailors until I cam to the island of Calypso. She made me here slave for nine years. When I finally reached Ithaca after being freed, my hous ahd been overrun by suitors. The had eaten the bes of my heards, drank the fruit of my vine and sought to have their way with my wife, the fair Penelope. The truth is that the suitors were fellow debtors who still suffered. The sons of the best families in Greece, they thought of themselves as aristocrats and sought to enrich themselves without being self-supporting through their own contributions. My first impulse ws to cut them down with my might bow. But I had begun to working my Twelfth Step and realized that my recovery depended upon being of service to others. S I invited them to a meeting and that is how the first Delta Alpha group in Ithaca was formed.

My recovery is due to my spiritual connection with my higher power. Whenever my strength was about to fail me, my Higer Power would appear before me in the guise of a human to show me to safety or urge me to renewed optimism. There were times, when fighting against an overwhelming enemy, I would look over my shoulder to see a stranger fight at my side and would know that Athene was with me. We ancients used to show our gratitude to the gods by sacrificing a bull, mixing it's blood with wine, and pouring the libation on the fire. I am told that the higher powers have new names, now, and that the sacrificing of animals has fallen out of favor. Your customs of tithing money to charity, and sitting in silent meditation seem like such strange ways to worship your gods. How difficult it must be for you moderns to pray to hidden, faceless gods! But I must refraind from discussion specific relegious tenants. I only offer my experience that I would be still adrift on a sea of debt if it were not for my conscious contact with my higher power.

It is time for me to return to the shadows of the night. I go now, but you keep coming back. It works if you work it.

—Odysseus, as chaneled by Steve K. and Michael C. at the Fall 2001 Visions Retreat