To: To my father, the alcoholic
None / Secular
January 18, 2026
The bottle was your liturgy and I learned to read your day by the level in it. I forgive the drinking. I do not forgive the lying about the drinking, because the lying made me doubt my own eyes. Pargament writes that religion is a way of coping — yours was the bottle. Mine was leaving. We both used what we had.