When we drug ourselves to blot out our soul's call, we are being good Americans and exemplary consumers. We're doing exactly what TV commercials and pop materialist culture have been brainwashing us to do from birth. Instead of applying self-knowledge, self-discipline, delayed gratification and hard work, we simply consume a product.

We saw every type of doctor you could imagine, lost count of how many treatments and therapies we tried, spent thousands of dollars, gave up all hope of her getting better, and started making plans for an early death. I was in my mid-thirties making plans to be a single father.