Page 410 - WhyAsInY

Why (as in yaverbaum)
and support from a caring friend (not to mention peer pressure) would help significantly to motivate him and ensure a good result.
Now, I wasn’t then, and am not now, given to placing trust in magic bullets, pseudo-scientific fads, and the like. (I had, for example, strained my marriage by asking the wrong questions at a meeting in a neighbor’s home, where two people had come to educate us, for a fee, on the won- ders of “Transcendental Meditation.” I had been rude enough to ask how a given mantra is assigned and why each person’s unique mantra must be a secret from all other people. For my trouble, I received glares and impenetrable responses but no inner peace.) Still, being a caring friend was important to me.
When, however, Nadel said that six sessions at $400 a pop would be required, the caring part of my personality was feeling a bit challenged, and I allowed that I would think on it. Peter, knowing me pretty well, picked up on my reluctance, did some investigation, and came back with what he thought would be an acceptable alternative: through his con- tacts at the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, a firm client, he learned of a free clinic at Lincoln Hospital, a municipal acute care facility that serves the south Bronx, where acupuncture was used experimentally in the treatment of addictions, smoking included.
Though not at all motivated but willing to help a friend, as well as to have an adventure and perhaps some laughs, I agreed that the price was right. If Nadel drove, I would go with him and try it on the way down to our office. It was May 7.
I suppose that the best evidence of my lack of optimism or motiva- tion is my decision to take my last carton of Marlboros and entrust it to Danny, then thirteen years of age, with the instruction that he was to hide it (note: not to throw it away) after Nadel and I left. Acting the part of a person of determination, however, I implored him to refuse to sur- render it to me or disclose its location—no matter how much I would thereafter plead, cajole, or threaten. To this day I cannot figure out what I was thinking, but whatever it was, it obviously did not bespeak a great deal of confidence or logic. Nor did it show much sensitivity to the posi- tion in which I was placing my son.
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