Wreckage

A friend who's been sober for over two years told me of his experiences when trying to buy a car.

When the salesman at the dealership told him his credit wasn't good enough to qualify him for the $28,000 car he wanted he didn't think it was a problem. He said a friend would cosign for him. However the finance manager told the prospective co-signer that even if he put $27,000 down on the $28,000 car they wouldn't finance the remaining $1,000.

While we had a good laugh about this, the reality is that many of us come into recovery with a lot of wreckage. My friend told me he had over $100,000 in medical bills alone from going in and out of recovery programs that he couldn't afford. He figures it will take him another four or five years to get his credit to a point where he can buy anything.

His experiences aren't much different than mine. When I first got sober I had gone through a foreclosure and owed a lot of money. I remember going into the loan department of a bank to finance a house.

I remember my shock when the banker told me "We wouldn't finance this house even if J Paul Getty cosigned for you."

In retrospect, his statement was funny. But this is another illustration of the messes we create when we're in the middle of our addictions.

So my friend must figure out another way to get a car until he clears up the wreckage of his past. The main thing is he still sober today and hasn't let this setback get him drunk.