A friend recommended Grant Matheson’s book The Golden Boy to me a few weeks ago. All of the copies at the public library were on hold, so I purchased a copy from Amazon for the Kindle, and read it, in one sitting, on the tiny screen of my phone.

It’s a gripping tale, well-told, of personal tragedy and personal triumph: I learned a tremendous amount about addictions and treatment and recovery that I didn’t know; perhaps most prominently, that addiction doesn’t discriminate, and can affect anyone, of any stature or income or life situation.

The greatest lesson from the book, however, is that it demonstrates the redemptive power of what I’ve long-termed “the obligation to explain.” Matheson took his personal story, which otherwise would have remained the stuff of rumour and innuendo, and laid it bare for all to read about, and to learn from. In doing so, he’s provided a valuable gift to us all, and one that might end up changing more lives for the better than he ever would have as a family doctor.