I'm Perry from Santa Barbara and I support the slowdown meeting a wide diversity of poets

and their outstanding poems takes my mind and heart to a higher place.

A truth that feeds my day away from the debilitating misinformation or the plagues us.

Join me by making a gift to the slowdown today.

Go to slowdownshow.org slash donate.

I'm Major Jackson and this is the slowdown.

Recently, I lost the cousin who at one point was like a brother.

He was only two weeks older than me.

I treasure the few pictures I have of us as kids.

In one, we are toddlers in a playpen cheesing in front of the camera.

In another, it's Easter.

We are dressed in buster brown shoes, red turtlenecks and leather vests.

Sadly, he became addicted to his whole teen and adult years.

Not too long ago, the Pew Research Center reported nearly half of us

have a family member or close friend who's been addicted to drugs.

But I swear and hate to admit that most of us could have guessed that statistic based on anecdotal experience.

I'm feeling some kind of way about his passing.

I know drug and alcohol dependence arises from a number of factors.

Economic, social, psychological, genetic.

Yet, I held out belief he would someday overcome the powerful forces that severely adult his life.

Though rooted in optimism, this was a heavy expectation given the frequencies of his relapse.

To be honest, my wish for his sobriety underscored an urgent and maybe selfish need.

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