Zeitgeist captures the shared ideas, beliefs, and spirit of an era. Certain things are coming together. The year 2025 turns to 2026, and what are our ideas and beliefs in the third decade of Century 21?

In December, I bought the paperback and the audiobook for The Resilience Myth: New Thinking on Grit, Strength and Growth After Trauma by Soraya Chemaly. I love it. The central myth about reliance is that it comes, not from the dominant cultural assumption of self-sufficiency and inner fortitude, but from openness to and reliance on community.

Be it trauma or anxiety du jour, being at an impasse in our vital relationships or lagging in our life-satisfaction, Chemaly’s book points to the ingredients of resilience that we know well in peer-to-peer recovery communities:

Interdependence, community support, collaborative care, sharing in social and emotional capital, empathy and kindness. 

That’s what resilience looks like, today. The Marlboro Man is so last-century; this idol of rugged individualism died of cancer. Soraya Chemaly is a journalist and a feminist, and her book speaks truth to the power of myth. She deconstructs a brand of patriarchal Americana resilience—pulling oneself up by the bootstraps, laughing at danger, denying grief—things I grew up with or aspired towards, and left me wanting.

The Latest with 30 Things by Bill Schaberg:

Meanwhile, in December, William Schaberg and I started talking about, and working on, YouTube vignettes about the “behind the scenes” and “since we published” observations of 30 Things: Practical Advice for Living Well (Rebellion Dogs August 2024). 

30 Things won a literary award[i] and enjoy critical reviews[ii]. It’s loved by most who read it, but Eckhart Tolle isn’t feeling his reputation as a 16 million bestseller taste-maker being threatened by 30 Things sales. While new readers find 30 Things every month, neither Bill nor I feel the book’s usefulness has reached its potential, so far. 

What came from Bill Schaberg’s mind and lips in describing the purpose of writing 30 Things? In the intro just posted on Rebellion Dogs’ YouTube today, Bill reflects on his 30 best life-hacks all coming from outside himself, embracing the wisdom of his community, and setting aside any impulse to go it alone, and relying solely on his problem-solving. In fact, he speaks to a bias toward self-sufficiency, which holds people back. A more “communitarian” approach, as he calls it, is access to the wisdom of the ages and the answers to everyday problems it offers.

Is this our decade’s shared spirit? Is there a thirst for rational, empathic, community engagement that could make America kind and well and “united” again? If you’re not American, neither am I. It’s a metaphor; considering the widespread complicity, cultural tension in the USA rings true for me and my world, as I hope it would for others. But resigning to inevitability is giving way to hope born of the whisper of voices that speak to our better selves—our “self” as part of a community. Maybe being vulnerable, empathetic and collaborative will be evident by the end of this decade. It wouldn’t hurt. Books like The Myth of Resilience and 30 Things are written through different voices, but perhaps with a collective spirit. I see this message of connection and collaboration in both books.

Rebellion Dogs Publishing just added to the print offerings of 30 Things, a laminated hardcover. Those who haveo have seen it, love it. There is the paperback, eBook and dust-jacket hardcover, but for a book that’s read and reviewed often, the laminate hardcover takes a beating that a well-read book needs. If you have people in your life with milestones or birthdays approaching, I expect they’d find 30 Things: Practical Advice for Living Well to be a thoughtful gift.

30 Things: Practical Advice for Living Well ($US)

• $  9.99 eBook
• $19.99 paperback
• $29.99 hardcover

If you’re so inclined, review this short clip (< 10 minutes) and offer your feedback. We plan to do more vignettes; your feedback is welcome. 

Rebellion Dogs Podcasting:

 While you’re on the Rebellion Dogs YouTube page, you’ll find a new playlist called “Podcasts.”  Included here are the latest couple of Joe C on Emotional Sobriety Podcast episodes recorded in the last month, as well as a blast from the past AA Grapevine Podcast appearance:” Sober Since Disco.” More guest appearances will be added here from the archives and upcoming invitations.

 The 2025 year ended with a surge of listeners enjoying our trilogy of professional women:

1.  Trish Travis, who many will recall from the Orlando 2024 International Conference of Secular AA, about her upcoming book, Feminists on Drugs.
2. Dr. Adina Silvestri discusses the evolution of therapeutic modalities, including microdosing, writing as therapy, meditation and hypnosis.
3. Jamie Marich, also an ICSAA 2024 speaker, talks to us on Trauma and the 12 Steps + her latest book, Queering EMDR

If you’ve missed any of these, they still have that new-car smell, Mmmm, Mmmm good. 

Looking inside the Plain Language Big Book:

Mary C and Joe C did an episode about the Plain Language Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous before it came out, and that show continues to pique interest. Because this is or could be such a monumental movement for AA, Rebellion Dogs is hosting a PLBB reading Zoom group Saturday afternoons, collaborating with Gigi N, our meeting host and Wm Schaberg, author of Writing the Big Book: The Creation of AA. It’s open to anyone. We are in the second half of a 16-week journey, with one chapter read each meeting, followed by sharing. All episodes have been recorded and are available to anyone with a link; all 16 recordings are slated to be archived for anyone interested. 

We bring curiosity and positive regard to this project. We all have a regular dose of resistance to change, or very personal views of how change should manifest. For some of us, this is a breakthrough. For others, it’s lipstick on a pig. But everyone in the meeting gets their say. 

 Over the last ten weeks, some speak to firsthand experience of using the Plain Language Big Book with immigrants, indigenous populations, incarcerated, neurodivergent or under-educated AA members. Literature, such as AA’s, is intended to communicate. Some of the Big Book barriers to communication are abstract concepts, early-20^th-century American cultural touchstones and run-on sentences. It’s more than that. The USA Plain Language Act of 2010 recognized that everyday Americans needed more informal writing to comprehend what’s on offer. Keeping the subject and verb close, omitting unnecessary words, and using more subheadings and whitespace can help communicate to more people.

 People who take AA into penal institutions or have worked with earnest members who chronically relapse, or people who were not raised in the USA, this new interpretation reaches those to whom it was intended. Phrases like, "the grouch and the brainstorm were not for us" no longer appear, and no one has to emphasize the importance of letting go of anger and negative emotions, particularly in the context of addiction recovery, because plain language eliminates the puzzled look on readers.

“At some of this we balked” because of the nostalgic loss of the southing familiarity. Is this destabilizing for those who feel that their currency as senior members is under threat? We could no longer quote page and verse, because our memorized lines have changed. 

 “If this is your first time through the steps, they may seem difficult … or even impossible. Do not be discouraged. No one has to follow these principles perfectly,” Alcoholics Anonymous PLBB “How It Works” pg. 66

 Now, this is what follows the Twelve Steps in Chapter Five. This speaks directly to the reader, using “you” instead of “we.” The reading group members each have concerns, but we all welcome this advancement for the wider audience it can help. But some don’t like it and will never read it.

This reminds me of when municipal laws outlawed smoking at AA and all meetings. Some members were perplexed. “How could newcomers get sober if they can’t smoke and talk about their powerlessness over alcohol?” It turned out the newcomers were fine with non-smoking meetings. Most of them had a cocaine habit and a gym membership. It was the bleeding deacons, longing for everything to remain as it had always been, who struggled with clean air AA.

Mary and I have attended or listened to all of these meetings (4 PM Eastern, Saturday[iii] – see the attached poster above. We are going to record a chat about our reflections on what may be with a world of dual expressions of the Big Book—1939 Bill’s own words, and a contemporary rehabilitated version. Look for this Rebellion Dogs episode coming in January.

More about The Resilience Myth, Soraya Chemaly

30 Things on Amazon

30 Things from Rebellion Dogs Publishing