The Smokies’ Sevier County gateway towns—Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, and Sevierville—have also unveiled major new attractions, restaurants, and shops that change the landscape quite a bit. They range from the silly (talking outhouse, anyone?) to the sublime (the best Cuban sandwich this side of Tampa), but they’re all incredibly good fun.

This special section takes a look at some of the most notable of the new. So if you haven’t been south of exit 407 lately, go check it out for yourself.

Entertainment

Hatfield & McCoy Dinner Feud

This new Pigeon Forge dinner comedy show leaves no room for impartiality. You’re assigned a side from the get-go, which determines whether you’ll be cheering for the Hatfields or the McCoys for the next few hours. The plot is loosely based on those famous feuding kin in Kentucky, but in this more PC version, both sides win (without bloodshed). As you might expect, there’s plenty of singing, dancing, and comedy—and a performance by national-champion cloggers.

Dinner is strictly Southern fare: fried chicken and pulled pork barbeque with all the fixin’s. Come early so you can poke around all the whimsical mountaineer-themed fun stuff outside the theater and in the lobby. You can mingle with live barnyard animals, check out the world’s largest non-working moonshine still, and set a spell in a talking outhouse—not an experience you’ll soon forget. The dinner feud takes the place of the amazingly popular Black Bear Jamboree, long a fixture on the Parkway.

Info: (865) 908–7469; www.hatfieldmccoydinnerfeud.com.

Adventure Forest at Wilderness in the Smokies

The newest attraction at Wilderness at the Smokies water park resort in Sevierville doesn’t involve so much as a drop of water. It’s called the Adventure Forest, and unlike the resort’s three waterparks, it’s open to anyone (for a fee)—not just resort guests, although Wilderness guests do get reduced rates.

The highlights of this new indoor park include a three-story ropes course, a multi-level laser tag arena, miniature bowling, black-light miniature golf, a large central arcade, a snack bar, and a cooler-than-all-get-out laser maze complete with music and fog machines where you can get your James Bond on.

Info: (877) 325-9453; www.wildernessatthesmokies.com.

Food and Drink

Mama’s Farmhouse

Eating at Mama’s Farmhouse in Pigeon Forge is simple. You just sit down and chow down. There’s no ordering—your waitperson brings you platters of whatever is on the menu for that day. You just help yourself and pass the platter, family style. Want seconds? No problem. At Mama’s, you can eat as much as you want.

The Johnson family—who also own and run Sevier County favorites Bennett’s Pit Bar-B-Que, Alamo Steakhouse, and Big Daddy’s Pizza—wanted to design a restaurant that was reminiscent of the family matriarch’s cooking, so they not only set it up family-style, but also offer many southern staples, including fried chicken, country fried steak, meatloaf, ham, chicken and dumplings, fried fish, sweet potato casserole, green beans, okra, pinto beans, biscuits and cornbread, and lots more. Although the menu differs from day to day, for lunch or dinner you get two or three meats, four or five vegetables, and dessert. Every Sunday, Mama’s serves roast turkey and stuffing.

Mama’s is also open for breakfast, serving scrambled eggs, chicken tenders, cheese grits, home fries, sausage patties, bacon, sweet potato or buttermilk pancakes, biscuits and gravy, and other tempting treats.

Info: (865) 908-4646; www.mamasfarmhouse.com.

Ole Smoky Moonshine Holler

The first legal moonshine distillery in the state recently expanded its retail space in a major way, so now in addition to seeing how the hootch is cooked (according to a 100-year-old recipe), you can do some serious shopping in this Gatlinburg establishment. The merchandise includes a wide variety of clothing (the most fun: a t-shirt that says, “I don’t know Jack, but I know Shine”). You can also buy all sorts of gourmet vittles, including cherry moonshine jelly, moonshine barbeque sauce, moonshine mustards, and even so-called hillbilly caviar (better known as chow chow). They’ve even added a snack bar and a winery. The best part of the expansion, though, is the stage area in the central courtyard where bluegrass musicians play several times throughout the day. Slide into one of the many wooden rocking chairs and enjoy the show.

All that aside, the highlight of a visit to the Holler hasn’t changed: the moonshine tasting room, where you can sip on Ole Smoky Original Moonshine (100 proof un-aged corn whiskey), Old Smoky White Lightnin’ (a smoother 100-proof ’shine that’s been distilled six times), Ole Smoky Apple Pie Moonshine (a 40-proof ’shine that really does taste almost exactly like apple pie), and whatever seasonal flavors are currently on sale. Be sure to try the moonshine cherries—they’re soaked in ’shine and taste mighty fine.

Info: (865) 436-6995; www.olesmokymoonshine.com.

Smoky Mountain Cheesecake Café

Cheesecake is just part of the story at the Smoky Mountain Cheesecake Café, located in a perky little yellow building in northern Sevierville (just south of Knifeworks). Tina Zalva, who owns and runs the café with her husband Ron, creates more than 30 flavors of the sweet stuff, rotating what’s available on any given day. (But if you order a whole cheesecake with 24 hours’ notice, you can have your pick of any of her flavors.) Options include old-fashioned standards like plain cheesecake with fresh fruit, those borrowed from pies such as peanut butter and key lime, those made from candy and cookies like Oreo and Coconut Almond Joy, and creative combos like the Elvis, which has banana and peanut butter cream. Can’t decide? Then throw caloric caution to the wind and dive into Dawn’s Death by Chocolate, made with no less than three dark chocolates. Want something smaller? Tina also makes fabulous cheesecake cupcakes.

Delectable desserts aside, the café also serves hearty deli sandwiches and grilled burgers along with various coffee drinks. The highlight of the menu here is the Cuban sandwich, which is hands-down the best in the area; it’s made with homemade pork, ham, salami, Swiss cheese, mustard, and mayo layered on special Cuban bread from La Segunda Central Cuban Bakery in Tampa (the heart of Cuban culture in the United States). Or consider a Reuben, made with homemade corned beef. The café recently expanded its hours to include breakfast, offering Cuban toast, breakfast sandwiches, and bagels—not to mention a Cuban coffee drink called café con leche (a Cuban dark roast with steamed milk).

Info: (865) 771-0881; www.smokymountaincheesecake.com.

Shopping

NOC Gatlinburg

Gatlinburg, snuggled right up against the nation’s most popular national park, has long lacked a full-service outfitter—until now. First-class North Carolina-based Nantahala Outdoor Center now has a presence in town—in a huge lodge-like building (once occupied by the venerable Burning Bush restaurant) that’s a stone’s throw from the entrance to the national park. Heralded by a set of larger-than-life oars out front, the establishment has recently been renamed NOC Gatlinburg. Here, you can book kayaking and whitewater rafting trips on seven rivers as well as fly fishing and hiking guides—and you can even rent mountain bikes.

The building houses a 25-foot climbing wall, a swinging rope bridge, and a creative kid’s play area, not to mention a very impressive outdoor store. In fact, this is the largest retail store of any kind in town. Almost anything you could possibly need to explore the Smokies is for sale here, including outdoor gear, clothing, and hiking and camping equipment in addition to outdoor-themed toys, souvenirs, and even housewares. Even better, this is one of the few LEED-certified retail stores in the Smoky Mountain area, meaning that it was constructed using several energy-efficient and environmentally friendly practices. It’s nice to know that a place that will help you explore the Smokies is also in the forefront of helping to preserve them.

Info: (865) 277-8209; www.nocsgreatoutpost.com.

90 80-miligram OxyContins

90 Somas

90 Valiums

This is the prescription that Kristin Philips* received the first time she visited a pain management clinic right here in Knoxville, Tennessee. What kind of pain must she have been in to need so much medication for a single month? According to Philips’s own admission, none at all. In fact, Philips had just been told by the doctor who had been giving her a prescription for hydrocodone for six months after she had knee surgery that he could no longer medically justify renewing her prescription.

And how large was the original prescription that Philips no longer needed? Just 30 10-miligram hydrocodone pills per month, or one per day. But when her doctor cut her off, all she had to do was set up an appointment at the pain clinic, where a visit consisted of indicating her level of pain on a scale of 1 to 10. “You would always say 10, and he would always nod, because that’s what he wanted you to say,” says Philips, though she is convinced that the physician was aware that she was lying. Her first visit netted her the prescription described above—almost 16 times the number of pills prescribed to prepare for a real surgery.

Like the recovering addicts we spoke to in Part One of our series [“The Faces of Addiction,” March/April], Philips was a normal young woman living a normal life before she started taking opiates. By the time she entered recovery 10 years later, she had lied, stolen, and illegally sold drugs in order to feed her hydrocodone habit.

Sadly, she is just one of many addicts.  Knox County Sheriff Jimmy “JJ” Jones told Cityview, “Right now, this is the downfall of our country. We’re headed in a bad direction with prescription drugs.” And according to the Sheriff’s Department, the side of town doesn’t matter when it comes to opiates. Prescription pain pills are everywhere in Knoxville—but where are they coming from?

There is no simple answer. According to experts, significant over-prescription of narcotics happens all the time. Several different factors have been identified as contributing to the high incidence of pain pill addiction in East Tennessee. Part of the blame must be assigned to the sometimes under-informed doctors who can legally operate pain clinics. Patient perception can also play a role. But these issues alone do not adequately explain the growing epidemic. The fact remains that some pain management clinics have far more nefarious reasons to keep pain pills flowing onto the streets of Knoxville.

In part, the proliferation of opiates has to do with a simple lack of continuing physician education. According to current Tennessee legislation, any licensed doctor can open and run a pain management clinic—even those who have no training in this specialty whatsoever. Though only a few specialties, combined with intensive fellowship training, qualify a medical student to be Board Certified in Pain Management, few doctors choose to pursue this relatively new specialty. A general practitioner or OBGYN might open a pain management practice because they themselves are chronic pain sufferers and have empathy for those dealing with pain on a daily basis, or because they have friends or family who have similarly suffered. These doctors often feel sorry for their patients and genuinely want to be of help to those in need. 

The problem with chronic pain, however, is that it can be extremely difficult to diagnosis or confirm. Doctors can perform tests, X-rays, and MRIs, but ultimately doctors rely on patient testimony to determine what hurts and how much. Moreover, doctors are taught in medical school to believe a patient when he or she describes symptoms and to do what they can to help. “When you go to a doctor, your assumption is that he’s going to help you. And his assumption is that you’re going to tell him the truth because you want to be helped,” says Dr. Mark Nelson of Tennova Comprehensive Pain Center. Dr. Nelson specializes in anesthesiology, one of the few medical specialties that qualify a physician to become a Board Certified pain specialist.

“A lot of physicians have sympathy for their patients and can’t say no, and they give their patients what they want every single time. And they’ll have happy patients. But often saying no is better for the patient in the long run,” explains Dr. James Choo. “In chronic pain populations, you have to be able to say ‘no’ and to put restrictions on their medications, and that really goes counter to what we’ve all been taught in medical school.” Dr. Choo, a physician at Pain Consultants of East Tennessee, is a Board Certified pain specialist who has undergone rigorous training in the methods and complexities of treating chronic pain. But many doctors who are entering this field, he says, are ill prepared to deal with difficult or complex cases—and they are especially ill prepared to deal with patients who are lying or stretching the truth. 

This philosophy on the part of doctors is only exacerbated in Knoxville by the long-standing patient beliefs about the efficacy of this medication. An understanding has grown up in the general populace that patients can go to their doctor and say, “I need something to help me now.” Patients are upset and disappointed when they can’t get a prescription that will quickly make them feel better and get them up to speed again. But sometimes chronic pain isn’t an easy problem to solve, and medical studies have now shown that there is a definite threshold to how much opiates can really do. “About 50 percent of chronic pain sufferers get up to a 50 percent reduction of their pain from narcotics. There is a peak in functionality,” says Dr. Nelson. It can be difficult for physicians to explain this to patients who believe that more pills will provide a solution to their problem. Unfortunately, however, no matter how far medical advances have come, some chronic pain sufferers have to endure the suffering from an injury or condition for the rest of their lives. Furthermore, doctors’ difficulties in helping patients to understand this is complicated by the necessity to be always watchful for addicts and drug-seekers masquerading as people who are truly in pain.

But sometimes ignorance and good intentions just aren’t enough to explain what goes on at pain clinics. As one officer on the narcotics force of the Knox County Sheriff’s Department put it, some doctors are “readily handing out the prescriptions.” According to the CDC, sales of opiates to providers such as pharmacies has increased by more than 300 percent since 1999. And there’s an enormous amount of profit to be made from opiates, which can sell on the street for as much as $1 per milligram—or $80 for a single high-dosage pill. Doctors who prescribe these drugs don’t make that much per pill, but by billing insurance or getting cash from patients, they can rack up as much as $7,000 to $10,000 per day, the Sheriff’s Department says.

With that kind of financial incentive, it’s not difficult to see why unscrupulous individuals are taking advantage of the current crisis. The Sheriff’s Department reports that a pain clinic shut down in Blount County not long ago had nearly $900,000 stashed in the safe—exponentially more than a legitimate operation would be making. Though the doctors we spoke to were not eager to speak ill of their peers, they are acutely aware of the problems caused by doctors who over-prescribe. “There are some practices out there that are trying to make a quick buck and don’t really care about their patients,” says Dr. Choo, and according to Dr. Nelson the ultimate result of over-prescribing—whether the doctors have good intentions or not—is that patients “get large doses of the pain medications that we all know are getting abused.”

Pain sufferers, too, must be careful when seeking care for their conditions. Many primary care doctors are no longer willing to prescribe opiates at all, and chronic pain patients are forced to turn to pain-specific practices. “We had one guy that called a pain clinic around here and they said, ‘Bring us an MRI.’ So that sounds good, like they’re making sure that he has a documented problem. The staff member then followed up and said, ‘We don’t care whose MRI it is, just bring us any old MRI,’” says Dr. Ted Jones, the psychologist at Pain Consultants of East Tennessee. Nearly all of the experts revealed the same signs to watch for: clinics that move frequently, have irregular hours and long lines outside the building before opening, display banner ads touting their services, and have cars in the parking lot with out-of-state license plates are almost certainly “pill mills,” as unscrupulous clinics are commonly called.

There is only so much that legitimate pain specialists can do to try to reduce the harm from pill-seekers and diverted drugs. Dr. Jones has developed a new psychological evaluation for patients who are seeking treatment from opiates. This has been an enormous help to his organization in determining what patients are safe to take on, and which of those patients can be prescribed opiates in addition to the many other treatments and therapies available for dealing with pain. “If I don’t have a good feeling for the patient, they’ve lied to me and they’ve severed the patient-physician relationship, they are no longer a part of the practice,” says Dr. Choo. Similarly, Dr. Nelson reports, “If we find someone who has active addiction, we won’t treat them in our clinic.”

            Still, “we’re not policemen,” says Dr. Nelson. Though his practice is to increase monitoring if he receives a tip about a patient seeking drugs, for instance, he can’t simply take those reports at face value. “We’ve had people call us and report that someone is selling pills just because they’re angry with their neighbor,” he says. But though evaluating patients and providing a safe place for chronic pain sufferers is a big step forward on the medical side of things, the problem with addiction rages on at the heart of Knoxville, and those patients turned away from legitimate services have plenty of other options available.

Legislators have been at work tightening up regulations on how these pain clinics can operate, requiring clinics to register and forbidding them from operating on a cash-only basis. However, those intent on violating the spirit of the law continually find new ways to work around the rules. “The bad pain clinics are where the big volume comes from,” says Dr. Nelson. “Sadly, it doesn’t take a great deal of work on the part of a doctor who wants to sell pain medicines to make it legitimate.”

And that’s something that Kristin Philips, now four years clean, can certain attest to. When she turned to shopping for pills online, she says, it was laughably easy to obtain a prescription. Telephone appointments with doctors from these web services lasted an average of about five minutes, and Philips would receive a shipment of drugs within two days—as long as she had her money order at the ready. Most of the online clinics didn’t last for long, but “when one shut down, you could find another,” says Philips.

            But Philips’s first pain pills didn’t come from an online doctor, and they didn’t come from another state. They came from a pain clinic in the heart of Knoxville, and there are more and more of these pain clinics popping up in our city and our state every month. The Sheriff’s Department reveals that “several” investigations are ongoing in Knox County. Most will probably result in prosecutions for insurance or TennCare fraud, the easiest way to get a conviction for over-prescribing and unscrupulous clinics. The wheels turn slowly, however, and it usually takes at least six months to acquire the evidence needed to shut a bad clinic down.

            And even if our law enforcement could shut down all of the “pill mills” taking up residence in Knoxville, more pills are pouring into Tennessee from across state borders. “Florida’s laws are more lax than ours, and ours are more lax than Georgia’s,” says Sheriff Jones. He describes how dealers here in Knoxville sponsor vans carrying eight or ten people on trips down to Florida, where each pilgrim can usually receive—and fill—a prescription for 800-1,200 pills. These individuals pay for their transportation either with money or with a portion of the pills, and each is free to sell whatever portion of their prescription that they don’t use themselves. This so-called “OxyContin Express” reaches throughout Appalachia, all the way from Florida through Tennessee to West Virginia. And though police can stop these vans at the state line, they can do nothing to stop people who have real prescriptions in their own names.

            Legislators, concerned physicians, and law enforcement are working to combat the influx of pills into Knoxville and the surrounding area, but there is still an enormous amount of ground to cover. “These medicines are incredibly powerful, and they can have such a powerful addictive quality. Any of these medications is just as dangerous as heroin on the streets,” says Dr. Choo. And at any given moment, opiates are just a few clicks of a computer mouse or a phone call away from our streets.

*Not her real name.

Proceeds from the sales of tickets for the event went to benefit Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee, an organization that feeds more than 165,000 people each year, including more than 66,000 kids (see page 82 for more on Second Harvest’s mission, and how you can help).

FIRST PLACE

Josh Shupe—Downtown Hilton

You can only eat one thing for the rest of your life:

Tacos!

Chef Shupe pursued a cooking career directly after high school in Oak Ridge and received his formal training at the prestigious institute Le Cordon Blue in Atlanta. He is inspired by seasonal ingredients, like the cranberries and vine-ripened tomatoes that brighten his current menu, and by the people around him. If he could cook for any person in the world, he would like to cook for President Obama. Shupe is currently creating culinary masterpieces at the Downtown Hilton.

SECOND PLACE ENTRÉE

Mario Navarro: Meksiko Cantina

If you were a spice, you would be:

A chipotle pepper

Chef Navarro started cooking early with help from both of his grandmothers in his hometown of Culiacan on the Pacific coast of Mexico, and he was a natural: the first thing he remembers cooking on his own was pickled poblano pepper stuffed with tuna and seafood ceviche—very impressive! His grandmothers continue to inspire him, as do memories of the many seafood vendors on the Altata beach in his hometown. He loves to offer real, authentic flavors in his Mexican cooking at Meksiko, and he takes inspiration from the cuisine of other countries such as Spain, Italy, and the Caribbean to create fusion dishes. 

SECOND PLACE DESSERT

Deron Little: Seasons Café

You can only eat one thing for the rest of your life:

Stuffed veal chop

As a “wee lad,” Chef Little had the opportunity to be introduced to the culinary world under the tutelage of master-chef Bill Bixby—one of only 18 master-chefs in the world at that time. He later honed his craft through an apprenticeship at a 5-star hotel in Orlando, Florida, and was a culinary instructor himself in Greenville, South Carolina. After working in the restaurant industry for 34 years and in five different states, Little has settled in Knoxville and begun enlivening the East Tennessee dining scene. He now serves up a constantly changing yet consistently delicious array of traditional dishes with a twist at Seasons Café.

THIRD PLACE DESSERT

Ed Bates: Puleo’s Grille

You can only eat one thing for the rest of your life:

Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Growing up in Lexington, Kentucky, Chef Bates learned to cook from his grandmother, a Mrs. McCoy (of the Hatfield-hating branch, no less). He was the youngest of eight siblings and, he confides, got plenty of extra attention. He started working in the restaurant business at age 15 and found he was a natural-born cook. His specialty in the kitchen is his ability to whip up the perfect food pairing for any wine. Still, Bates is a firm believer in authority—whenever there’s a dispute in the kitchen at Puleo’s, he pulls out his old Cook’s Bible.

Jeff Carter: Dancing Bear Lodge

If you were a spice, you would be:

Thyme

Hailing from Mobile, Alabama, Chef Carter came to Knoxville almost a decade ago to work under Chef John Fleer at Blackberry Farm in Walland. He was inspired to become a chef by cooking with his father, and the first dish they created together was Monkey Bread (a warm, gooey breakfast pastry). His goal is to create unpretentious comfort food in a rustic setting that will warm the hearts of his guests, and he loves working at the Dancing Bear Lodge, where he says cooking just feels like making an extra-big family meal.

Jeffrey DeAlejandro: The Crown & Goose

Describe your cooking style in three words or less:

Against the grain

A member of the first class of the Culinary Institute at the University of Tennessee, Chef DeAlejandro learned his love of cooking from his mother and grandmother. They cooked together “a ton,” he says, and he made his first solo pancakes before the age of 10. He traveled throughout the United States. as a college baseball player and also lived for a time in London. DeAlejandro cites his travels as further inspiration for the menu at The Crown and Goose, where he has been working since it opened four years ago. His best-kept secret is that if you look hard enough, you’ll always find a case of PBR somewhere in his kitchen.

THIRD PLACE ENTRÉE

Kirk Emery: Sequoyah Grille

You can only eat one thing for the rest of your life:

Peanut butter & jelly

Having once cooked for culinary legend Julia Child, nothing fazes Chef Emery now. A native Knoxvillian, he moonlighted as a cook in the Marines before heading to culinary school at L’Academie de Cuisine in Gathersburg, Maryland. Despite an education in haute cuisine, however, he confesses that a spoonful of peanut butter would win any cooking competition that he judged, and that he has a secret recipe for donuts in his kitchen at Sequoyah Grill. Ideally, he would aspire to have the people who have cooked with him take a little of what he has taught and keep cooking on their own—especially his two sons.

Gerry Gardner: Latitude 35

Describe your cooking style in three words or less:

Rich, comforting, playful

Though he’s an East Tennessee native who learned to cook at his mother’s knee, Chef Gardner brings a global outlook to his dishes and loves to add a little something surprising to his gorgeous Southern-inspired food—such as including Granny Smith apples with his scrumptious Ultimate Grilled Cheese. The secret behind his success: his two daughters, who like nothing better than to “mix stuff” with Daddy after work. Gardner’s restaurant, Latitude 35, is entering its third year on Market Square.

Cameron Kight: Crù Bistro & Wine Bar

If you were a spice, you would be:

Cayenne

Chef Kight’s first dish? At age 8, he made the crêpes from the iconic cookbook Joy of Cooking to surprise his parents with breakfast in bed. “Nobody spit them out,” he recalls—and, after this great success, he has been cooking ever since. He thinks of cooking more as chemistry than as art and loves to throw together the best, freshest ingredients to see how they react together—especially fresh peppers. Who would have thought Chipotle Meatloaf would go over so well? Kight is currently the sous chef at Cru Bistro.

Jeek Kim: Nama Sushi Bar

Assisted by Louis Moore, Nama Sushi Bar

If you were a spice, you would be:

Red pepper

Chef Kim loves to combine the taste of different countries—Japan, Thailand, Korea, France, and more—to create the unique flavors of what he calls “Japanese fusion.” A native of South Korea, Kim has been in Knoxville for five years now and says that the climate here is a lot like his hometown—but with less rain. His favorite person to cook for is his wife, though he doesn’t get to do so as often now that he has taught her to cook, as well! Though he’s enjoying working at Nama Sushi Bar for now, Kim would love to own his own restaurant in the future.

Amber Lloyd: The Orangery

Describe your cooking style in three words or less:

Flavor comes first

Mississippi native Chef Lloyd made it through three years of an architecture degree at the University of Tennessee before realizing that her true love was cooking. She had been working in the restaurant industry since age 14, but she fell in love with cooking at the sauté station. She has a passion for fresh herbs and colors. If she could cook for anyone in the world now, she wishes she could cook for her long-lost grandmother—but if you come by the Orangery, she’ll cook for you instead.

Chester Miller: Bistro by the Tracks

Describe your cooking style in three words or less:

Simple, delicious, accessible

At the upscale Bistro by the Tracks, Chef Miller prepares sophisticated dishes with grace. Although originally from Indiana, his menu (inspired by his mother, a restaurant manager, and Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking) now features fresh and local ingredients. He started in the restaurant business at age 14 as a line cook, and 30 years later his love for Southern cooking is apparent in the unique Bistro menu. Did you know he keeps a disco ball in his kitchen?

Shane Robertson: Northshore Brasserie

You can only eat one thing for the rest of your life:

Foie gras

When the going gets tough in Chef Robertson’s kitchen, he pulls out his copy of the official Chuck Norris fact book to lighten the mood. Robertson can easily understand his staff’s difficulties, since he worked his way all the way up the ranks of the restaurant world from prep cook to executive chef. He came to Knoxville in 2005 to open the elegant Northshore Brasserie. Though he loves Knoxville and says his regulars are “inspirational,” he would love to end his career as the chef-owner of a hole-in-the-wall restaurant serving tropical fish on a beach in the Caribbean.

Alex Shanks: Icon Ultra Lounge

Describe your cooking style in three words or less:

Original ethnic fusion

Chef Shanks started in the restaurant industry as a dishwasher while still in high school. Though he has no formal training, his cooking style springs from what he saw, tasted, and smelled while traveling extensively in the Eastern Hemisphere. He is now the executive chef of Icon, a new restaurant that will soon open at the top of the Sunsphere and will feature small, tapas-style dishes on the theme of “World’s Fare”—ranging from Indian Chicken Vindaloo to Vietnamese Nachos and beyond.  

But soon public opinion turned against methadone, and the press began to point out that MMT was simply substituting one addiction for another. It proved extremely difficult to wean patients off of methadone completely, and the vast majority of those who stopped the treatment relapsed into heroin addiction once more. Worse still, it quickly became apparent that this so-called miracle drug was just as abusable as the substance it was supposed to replace. Methadone acquired a street value, and methadone clinics were flooded with drug seekers and addicts with no intention of mastering their dependence. 

Today, patients receiving MMT are subject to draconian regulatory measures. In order to receive the treatment, a recovering addict must visit his clinic each and every day to receive his medication. On weekends or holidays, patients are prescribed just enough of the drug to last them until the clinic opens again, usually only two or three days’ worth of pills. In most states, patients must remain compliant daily for a full two years—in Florida it’s five—before they are allowed to receive a prescription for a full month’s supply of methadone.

These measures do reduce the potential for methadone to be abused, but on the other hand, they also allow recovering addicts no opportunity for personal responsibility, no opportunity to re-learn their decision-making process and take control of their lives once more. Rather than being controlled by cravings for heroin, they are managed by government regulations.

But is this no more than an addict deserves?

Heroin is still present in today’s drug scene, but it has now taken a back seat to a new epidemic: prescription pain pill abuse. As opiate addiction becomes an ever-larger problem in our community, controversy also rages about how addicts should be treated—both medically and socially. One major component in this controversy is the use of suboxone and/or subutex to help opiate addicts recover from their dependence. Like methadone, suboxone is similar in chemical makeup to the drugs in question, and like methadone, it also has a high potential for abuse.

Suboxone and subutex both contain buprenorphine, which is also an opiate (a synthetic morphine, to be exact). In essence, buprenorphine is used to suppress the symptoms of withdrawal in patients addicted to opiates such as oxycodone or hydrocodone while having a far less extreme effect on the body. The symptoms of opiate withdrawal are severe and often include anxiety, restlessness, shakes, sweats and/or chills, rapid heart rate, elevated blood pressure, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, body aches, runny nose, and sneezing.

Suboxone also contains naloxone, a drug that blocks the opiate receptors in the brain in order to lessen or prevent the effects of opiates. It is intended to make it harder for addicts to abuse suboxone for its opiate component. Subutex does not contain the additional drug and is not used in outpatient care except under special circumstances, such as an allergy to naloxone. Though it was originally believed that buprenorphine could not be used to produce a high in an opiate-dependent patient, this has now been disproven, and both suboxone and subutex have gained street value among the addict population.

Suboxone, with its added component of abuse protection, was approved for use in outpatient addiction treatment several years ago. Such treatment, as opposed to an inpatient or residential rehab, reduces the impact of addiction by allowing the patient to maintain their normal life while undergoing treatment.

Cityview spoke with two doctors who work or have worked with suboxone outpatient programs about the effect and efficacy of using one drug to combat addiction to another.

Dr. Curtis Marcome is the medical director of Cornerstone of Recovery, an addiction treatment center in Louisville, Tennessee. Though he was at one time involved in using suboxone for outpatient treatment, Dr. Marcome and Cornerstone have now discontinued this program.

Dr. Marcome continues to use subutex in Cornerstone’s inpatient treatment. Rather than using it over the course of several months, patients at the clinic undergo a five- to 11-day detoxification under 24-hour nursing supervision. Subutex is used in decreasing dosages to help ease the symptoms of withdrawal until the detoxification is complete. Patients still suffer some of the effects of withdrawal after they take their last dose of buprenorphine, Dr. Marcome says, but the symptoms are much less severe than they would be if the patient were to undergo a “cold turkey” detox.

Dr. Marcome is careful to point out that outpatient suboxone treatment has succeeded somewhat with specific groups of patients, including some of his own who got off and stayed off of opiates. But, for him, the successes were few and far between. The majority of his patients, he says, were found to be positive for other drugs in their regular drug screenings and were dismissed from the program, while many others failed to return for follow-up treatment. There was far less support and accountability for these patients than for those who committed to residential treatment, and the effect of this was made apparent through the high dropout rate.

However, most of his doubts about outpatient suboxone programs, Dr. Marcome says, spring from the way they are administered by many doctors. For instance, he has found that many patients who have been treated with suboxone are unaware that the drug they have been taking is actually an opiate and that using it long-term is equivalent to continued opiate dependence. Some doctors also fail to drug-screen their patients regularly or to encourage and require them to attend the therapy or 12-Step meetings that Dr. Marcome believes are essential for the true and complete treatment of addiction.

Another concern is that as many as half of his patients are poly-substance dependents, meaning that they will be suffering withdrawal from more than one drug during detox. While opiate withdrawal is miserable, he says, some other forms of withdrawal are much more dangerous and even have the potential to be fatal, and he believes that outpatient programs can often fail to identify or address these additional problems. Still other patients he has treated have been told by doctors that they will have to remain on the treatment for the rest of their lives. Like MMT, this is considered to be a harm-reduction technique, as it allows the patient to live a mostly normal life.

This harm-reduction method is not compatible with Dr. Marcome’s abstinence-focused treatment philosophy. “When you’re basically just substituting or replacing one mood-altering drug with another mood-altering drug, that’s not abstinence,” he says. He argues that addiction maintenance caters to our culture’s need for a quick fix, for a pill to take that will “cure” the patient’s addiction. But, Dr. Marcome says, remaining on buprenorphine sustains opiate addiction—it does not cure it. Instead, he advocates complete abstinence from all mood-altering substances as the only true cure for the disease of addiction.

Dr. Andrew Sugantharaj of Complete Family Care, an internal and family medicine practice, holds that despite cases of misuse of suboxone, he still believes there is a place for it in the fight against pain-pill abuse. When doctors mis-prescribe the drug or fail to educate their patients and hold them accountable, he says, it doesn’t mean suboxone is wrong. “It doesn’t mean suboxone is evil,” he says. “It means suboxone is a tool that’s being misused.”

Since 2007, Dr. Sugantharaj has been a member of a program that allows him to administer outpatient treatment for opiate addiction to a limited number of patients at his practice. The federally monitored program requires physicians who enroll to have a special DEA number in order to prescribe suboxone to treat patients suffering from narcotic addiction disorder.

In addition to treating the physical effects of addiction with suboxone, the program at Complete Family Care provides recovering addicts with a structure of accountability for their recovery. Dr. Sugantharaj strongly believes that addressing psychological, behavioral, and emotional issues is crucial to the recovery process. Patients are drug tested and thoroughly educated about the process they will undergo prior to signing up for treatment. They come to the clinic every few days or once week at first, later every two weeks. Pill counting, returning the empty packaging for their prescription, a requirement to attend addiction meetings or some form of counseling at least once a week, and regular drug testing help to keep patients accountable as they struggle to return to what Dr. Sugantharaj calls “living clean and sober.” He is also able to provide proof of their compliance to employers or legal professionals if needed, which often helps his patients to keep a job or to regain child visitation rights. Slowly but surely, his patients are able to restore relationships and rebuild their lives while simultaneously working to overcome their addiction.

And beating addiction is what his program is meant to do. He does not encourage or allow his patients to use suboxone for merely maintaining their addiction at a low level. Some patients come to him after having been prescribed suboxone by another doctor for multiple years. There’s no difference, Dr. Sugantharaj tells them, between staying on pain pills for years at a time and staying on suboxone treatment indefinitely—both are opiates. Instead, he prescribes his patients just enough suboxone to keep them out of withdrawal, gradually lowering the dosage over the course of their treatment until the drugs are eliminated. Most people complete the program in six months to a year, perhaps a little more, all while living at home in their regular environment. Many of them, Dr. Sugantharaj says, tell him, “I can’t believe I can feel normal again.”

The success rate for his program, Dr. Sugantharaj estimates, is 60 to 70 percent. He, too, has had problems with getting follow-up with all of his patients. Inevitably, some of them lose sight of the goal and fall back into old habits before completing the treatment. Some, he admits, enter his program for the wrong reasons and try to use it as a source for drugs. He tries to identify those who are insincere early on and remove them for the program to make way for those who are committed to getting clean. But as long as his program is producing viable, useful results, he says, he will continue to use all of the tools available to him to help his patients to defeat addiction and get back in control of their lives.

Cityview found that both of these doctors agree that despite the potential for abuse, suboxone and subutex have a useful purpose in combating addiction. Though their methods differ, they both believe in getting opiates completely out of a patient’s system to the point where they have no dependence upon any drug in their day-to-day lives. Both make it clear that maintenance is not—and never will be—a cure for addiction.

Addiction treatment professionals agree, however, that the most important component in fighting addiction is real intentionality and dedication on the part of the patient suffering from addiction. This, combined with education, support, and a high level of accountability, combats addiction at a deeper level than any medication.

Now imagine again. Imagine the same wind, the same rain, the same whitecaps on the lake—but now you’re standing by a window, looking out from your home onto the wildness outside. Inside, everything is calm and ordered—each element exquisitely fashioned and meticulously placed, a perfect mirror to the raging storm outside.

Dr. Casey Page’s house is just such a refuge from the storms of life. Standing on the shore of Fort Loudon Lake, the timber-frame structure integrates perfectly into its environment, its interior beautifully echoing the natural elements of the land around it. “I love the house. I love everything about the style of it, from the outside to the inside,” says interior designer Sam George of Samuel Franklin. He, along with builder Robert Harkrider of Princeton Construction, worked with Page to create the elemental style of the home.

The exterior of the house is painted a sage green and complemented by exquisite stonework, and the home itself is surrounded by a carefully chosen mix of flora to create a playful and elegant environment. The landscape by Four Seasons Grounds Management is designed to complement the house’s design and help it to blend in with the natural beauty of the lakeshore. Page worked with David Neil, the company’s owner, to choose the color scheme and bed design for the exterior plants. Everything was planned so as to “maximize the beauty of the architectural features of the home and integrate the interior of the house with the gardens.” Four Seasons also executed the paved driveway and walkway in front of the home. Belgard Urbana Stone was selected for this project. “The chiseled textures and contours combine with the stone’s random shapes and patterns to recall the look and feel of vintage cut stone,” says Neil. For Page, the combination of the stone pavers and the other stone elements of the wood were a perfect complement to the timber-frame structure.

“I like the elements of outside: stone and wood,” says Page. The son of a lumberman, he learned the love of wood and the outdoors from his father. Through the combined talents of Harkrider and George, however, his home goes beyond a merely rustic feel to a truly elegant combination of nature and design.

This combination starts with the basic structure of the house. Working with Harkrider, Page chose an existing plan for his home and modified it extensively. “We adapted the plan to suit his needs,” says Harkrider. Perhaps the most important element of the home’s design is the method of construction, a traditional timber frame provided by Sauter Timber. This is a very old method for building and perhaps the sturdiest way to build a house. Though once a timber frame would have been constructed by craftsmen using only hand tools, today the heavy timber beams are cut on a machine precisely controlled by a computer to ensure accuracy. Sauter’s team then takes the beams and joints them together to create the house’s frame. The beams support the roof and walls of the structure, and the distressed and stained timber that is visible in the great room of the house is therefore an essential part of its structure as well as a beautiful element of the room. The timber frame structure extends to both the front and back of the house, giving the exterior its shape and craftsman-style design. Despite its modern construction, the romance of timber frame remains.

As with the home’s staircase, no nails or metal fasteners were used to create the timber frame structure. Instead, the traditional method of using pegged mortise and tenon joints adds strength to the structure, while the traditional joints on the staircase became features of the house’s overall look and feel. The staircase is completed with iron railings to add yet another texture to the entranceway. The mix of textures in the home that begins with the timber frame structure helped to create the atmosphere that Page was looking for in his new home.

“I’m past the point in my life when I really want to have a super formal house. I just want people to be comfortable,” says Page. “I was tired of stiff, formal living.” He asked Harkrider and George to help him create a beautiful yet relaxing home where he could unwind from his busy life. It was also very important to him that other people would feel welcome in his home. “He wanted it to be very comfortable,” says George. “ It was all about everything being approachable to anybody who would come in—that they would feel comfortable sitting anywhere they wanted to sit and that there were no off-limits rooms.”

Though Dr. Page lives alone, his house is designed to be extremely guest-oriented. Each bedroom is a suite that has its own unique, special bathroom. They’re all different,” says George. “The tile in them is different, and the way we used it is different.” The best part, however, is that every bedroom in the house has its own view of the lake. Guests are also assured their rest by the layout of the house: all of the guestrooms are either upstairs or downstairs, while Page’s rooms are on the ground floor, and all of the guest rooms are on the opposite side of the house from the kitchen, where early risers are likely to congregate.

The house is fairly far from town and from Page’s practice, but, “It’s worth the drive when you see the view and how pretty it is over there,” says Page. Built on a peninsula, the house commands a view of the lake from several angles. The development where Page lives is almost a private oasis, with only half-a-dozen neighbors nearby. And, Page adds, guests who make it out are more than welcome to stay the night with him and drive back to town in the morning.

The overall feel of the house is one of easy, measured living; it’s an incredibly easy place to relax. Most of the rooms are painted in low, calm shades of green, yellow, and cream. “It’s easy for him to come home and live in this,” says George. “He’s not encountering a bright, mustard-yellow wall or a vivid red wall—those are not bad colors, but this is just more soothing to look at.” The floors are also an integral part of the elegant but comfortable atmosphere. The plank floors provided by Auten Hardwood Floors are multi-width, with four different widths of board to give it a varied look. The boards are also hand-scraped and hand-distressed. The boards were distressed prior to installation; Auten then worked with Princeton Construction to further distress the floor as a whole. Having a distressed floor, George explains, is not only an attractive visual feature but also takes the stress out of having hardwood floors, because if anything scrapes or dents the floor it is easy to disguise the mark as part of the original distressing. Finally, the wood was pretreated and then given a custom-blended stain that Page selected to match the overall look of his home.

One important element of Page’s home is the lack of expected, traditional rooms. For instance, there is no formal dining room in the house, and the principal area for dining is the breakfast room adjoining the kitchen. The room’s table is a unique piece made from reclaimed wood. “It was almost like a table you had found in a barn, weathered for years and years and years,” says George. The chandelier that hangs above it is made from an old wine barrel imported from France—it arrived with European wiring and had to be completely rewired when it arrived, but, George says, it finished the room perfectly. A granite-topped island separates the breakfast room from the kitchen, allowing the two rooms to flow comfortably together, as well as providing additional seating. The cabinets by Sims Trim are done in knotty alderwood, and the two types of granite, different sizes and shapes of tile, and stacked stone all add to the visual interest of the room. The stone of the hood and the distressed wood of the cabinets add to the house’s theme and perfectly complement the reclaimed wood table.

Another wonderful element of this home is the music room that replaces a traditional living room. Located at the front of the house with two huge windows to let in plenty of natural light, this room was chosen to house Page’s piano. This presented something of a challenge for the design, George explains, because the piano had a black finish, while most of the elements of this home are brown. He therefore chose a piece of weathered wood furniture to go against the back wall of the room. The piece’s distressed look fit perfectly into the style of the house, while the iron grillwork on the doors of the cabinet are black, matching the piano and helping to tie the whole room together.

The music room is also home to a magnificent handmade, vegetable-dyed Pakichobi rug. The rug was a housewarming gift to Page, and he enlisted George to help him choose a rug that would suit the rest of the house’s décor. It needed to have a bleached out or distressed look in order to fit into the other pieces, George explains, and the one they chose was perfect for that room, with just a hint of color.

Another key element of this home is the master suite, which is home to every luxury imaginable. “That was the one place where everything we dreamed, we put in there,” says George. For instance, the room has its own fireplace across from the bed, and Page can enjoy a cheerful blaze without leaving the comfort of his bedroom. Another unique feature is the unobtrusive television—when not in use, it fits neatly into a custom designed box at the foot of the bed, which is finished in the same linen as the headboard with metal studs to add visual interest. The spacious bedroom opens through double glass doors onto a small terrace that Page can use throughout the year, as removable glass panes can be installed over the screened windows during the winter to keep the space warm.

Perhaps even more luxurious than the bedroom itself, however, is the master bathroom. The whirlpool tub is set into the floor, and a small shelf at the foot allows Page to add some cherished belongings to the room. The shower is a Kohler DTV shower system provided by Ferguson’s Appliances. The Digital Thermostatic Valve system has six watertile body sprays on the wall, a watertile rain head in the ceiling, and two wall-mounted showerheads, as well as a steam system. The different sprays and the temperature of the water can be precisely controlled with the touch of a button. Music can be piped into the shower, just as it can into any room in the house, and the shower can also be programmed to simulate a thunderstorm, sunrise, and so on with a series of sounds and lights while a waterfall trickles down the stacked stone at the back.

Just outside of the house is the final element that transforms this little bit of lakeshore into something close to paradise: the pool. Designed as a collaboration between Harkrider and Mike Detota from Able Gunite Pool and Spa, the custom-designed pool has smooth, sweeping sides with an infinity edge facing the lake. Unlike typical pools, however, the interior of this pool features a pebble finish from Pebble Tec, a beautiful and extremely durable surface. This does, however, make the pool somewhat darker than a traditional quartz or diamond bright finish. George explains the choice to have a dark interior, saying, “You can’t have crystal blue Bahamas water in a pool sitting against a body of water that is brown. So it needed to have a dark finish on the inside so that if you’re in the basement and you glance through those windows at the right elevation, with the infinity edge, you have an image that the water flows right into Fort Loudon Lake.” According to David Neil of Four Seasons Grounds Management, the landscaping in the rear of the house was designed to “feel like one large room.”

This pool is an essential part of the home and was built while the house was still in the foundation stages. This allowed for yet another unique feature of the pool: a portion of it extends under the terrace above, allowing guests to sit out of the sun if they choose or, on a cool day, to enjoy the heat from the nearby fireplace as they relax in the heated water. According to Detota, the salt water pool has two different heaters: an electric heat pump that operates efficiently during the summer by pulling heat from the outside air and a gas heater that keeps the pool and hot tub at a comfortable temperature throughout the winter. In any season this outdoor area is the perfect place for a party. Built into one side of the pool are underwater stools for the swim-up bar, while a lowered area in the tile next to it creates space for a full bar and bartender. The final element that makes the pool complete: the pillars that extend into the water are also equipped with spouts that let a flat sheet of water flow elegantly into the pool.

For so many of the details of this home, says George, “If it wasn’t there, you probably wouldn’t notice it, but because it is there, you definitely do notice it.” Those moments of amazement at the intricacies of detail and design are common here, where the smallest details received just as much attention as the largest elements of the house. George’s enthusiasm for the home is contagious as he continues: “It’s going to take years to know what’s the best spot in this house. There are so many great spots that if I was sitting in one great spot, I would have to be wondering, ‘Is this the best great spot to be in at this moment in time?’ ” The exquisite elements that George and Harkrider worked to create blend perfectly to form an elegant yet comfortable home for Dr. Page.

I think, though, that the anguish and distress we encounter after romantic betrayal is often the most upsetting. Almost everyone has been forced to confront the pain of romantic betrayal (and you are blessed if you haven’t!). There are, of course, varying degrees of this pain—sometimes shocking, sometimes tormenting—but losing a spouse who has left you for your best friend or someone “better looking” or with more money can be understandably devastating. Finding ways to help people overcome the pain that comes from this type of betrayal has been a major focus of my career.

Over many years, I have developed what I call a “spiritual thesaurus,” because there are words that have one meaning in day-to-day life that take on completely different meanings after a spiritual awakening—and remarkably different meanings after an emotional betrayal.

Early in my career, I worked with a client whose family had brought her to me because she had tried to commit suicide. The women’s self-esteem was very low; she had been in an abusive relationship with an alcoholic husband for many years and she finally tried to kill herself after coming home one day and finding her husband with another woman. I met with her and offered the best counsel I could, but this was when I had first started my practice and I was ill-prepared. What could I do to help?

I have never been afraid to ask God questions. I felt a great sadness for my client. I started thinking about all of the good people I had met who had been hurt by rejection—including me! I asked God: “Why do good people have to feel the worst feeling in the world—the feeling that comes from betrayal?” I closed my eyes and meditated. When I was relaxed I started seeing the word “rejection” scrambled with the word “protection”; I saw the word reject turn into the word protect—and I saw the words: “When my children are not wise or strong enough to make the right decisions for themselves, I set up a rejection as a form of protection.”

Boom! It all made sense to me! You don’t feel good if you go to a bank in an attempt to secure a loan and can’t get one, but you probably couldn’t have afforded the loan—or hard financial times were on the way—and you would have ended in deeper trouble. You were, therefore, being protected. You may be hurt if you are turned down when you apply for a certain job, but it may be that that the job would have destroyed you—and you may have missed the perfect job waiting for you just down the road. And if you love someone and they don’t love you back or they do something to hurt you—if they betray you—then you are being protected—and not rejected.

Of course, a fresh rejection or betrayal can sting, and emotions have to dissipate before you can think clearly and decisively, but after some time passes many people can incorporate into their lives the wisdom that comes from rejection. The only healthy way to accept betrayal is to understand that we are being protected—and not rejected.

THE ART OF ACCEPTANCE

How can we heal from betrayal? The old saying, “time heals all wounds,” is true, but when the hurt is new this means nothing. “Acceptance” doesn’t mean trying to force people to think differently and be anything other than who they are. Suffering comes from one emotion: wanting something to be different than it is or wanting people to be someone they are not. The goal is to find well-being through balance. Buddhists refer to this as tatramajjhattata. Tantra means “there,” majjha means “middle,” and tata means “to stand or to pose”; together the word means “to stand in the middle of all this”—and the point is to find equanimity. Locally, we might say, “sometimes it just ain’t”—and I am suggesting the best thing to do is to surrender to the truth.

Jesus taught this in the parables better than any modern-day psychologist by teaching us about the process of forgiveness. Indeed, The Lord’s Prayer focuses on our willingness to forgive (“As we forgive them that trespass against us”). The Ancient Greeks believed “salvation” was dependant on “right thinking”—and “right thinking” or forgiveness is the quickest way out of the pain of betrayal.

Of course this isn’t easy, but the very desire to forgive keeps the process moving. It may sound counterintuitive, but calling upon the emotion of anger, a byproduct of betrayal, can sometimes be useful. In fact, I often teach my clients about non-violent anger. If you are in an abusive situation, feeling angry about it can make you so sick of the situation that you remove yourself from the relationship! This is healthy—because if the anger turns to bitterness, the bitterness can kill you.

There are three types of forgiveness. The first I call “no-cost forgiveness.” Here, we don’t require the offender to pay any price. We say “yes” and mean “no.” We draw boundaries and then ignore them. We feel sorry for someone—and then swallow our emotions. No-cost forgiveness is a cheap forgiveness and offers no peace. Eventually, something goes wrong, we are walked on—and we might even get sick.

The second type of forgiveness occurs when someone offers a sincere and heartfelt apology—and this is the great healer. When the apologizer is genuine, and he or she can and will change behavior, this is ideal. Sometimes, however, this isn’t practical. You cannot receive a real apology from someone who isn’t willing to own up to his or her offenses. For example, you can’t receive an apology from an addict who is not in recovery—and feeling anger about not receiving an apology from an addict is akin to hating moss because it grows on a tree.

The third type of forgiveness is what I call “The God Way.” When you are no longer willing or able to swallow everything, and when you cannot get an authentic apology, you go The God Way. Here, you honor all of the hurt, and you accept that you cannot change your story—you can only use your story. This is why many famous people who have been hurt emotionally can often be so helpful to others, because they use their story by channeling the injustice and anger they feel in order to change history! The God Way allows you to forgive without the participation of anyone else. You surrender and, metaphorically, hand over your sword to God.

Perhaps you are one of those rare people in today’s world who is obsessed with fairness—but, try as you might to be fair, the unfairness of a situation compels you to hang on to anger. Consider that fairness is not in God’s DNA. For example, God allowed disease into the world almost from Day One. That said, it is very important to note that God has never given cancer or disease to anyone. And is it fair that I have seen saints suffer horrible deaths after clinging to life for months on a respirator, while sinners who have never spent a moment in church or prayer live through cancer and return to day-to-day life as healthy as ever?

We know that God isn’t sitting somewhere in the sky playing chess with our lives. (He would have to have shoes and knees—and fingers to move the chess pieces!) I believe God gave free will to the world—and people without a conscience will always hurt people who act fairly and honestly. But unfairness and dishonesty isn’t in God’s DNA either! God’s DNA includes karma, justice, and righteousness. God set the laws of being; people hurt themselves. Remember that if you touch an open wire you may hurt or even kill yourself. If you hurt enough people, by God’s laws you will eventually destroy yourself. God doesn’t force you to hurt yourself or to hurt others; we all do what we do on our own.

I have heard people who have been treated shabbily say, “Why is it that the person who hurt me seems to have such a good life and I always seem to struggle?” I always answer: “The movie isn’t over. Just stay tuned.” Good will come to those who are kind and honest through life. For those who are unkind and dishonest: You will eventually end in a shipwreck. It is simply the Law of Being.

Remember, too, that we are told in the Bible that God wove us in the womb, made us human, and knows us by name. I believe that to be true and I also believe that God placed in each of us some legitimate dreams, hopes, and aspirations with which we come into the world. I have never met anyone who came into the world dreaming of being poor or ugly. No one looks at a baby and sees a drug addict or a serial killer. We see our babies attending Harvard or accomplishing greatness. We never expect to bury our children or to be betrayed by our parents. We say our wedding vows and we mean them; no one marries to get divorced. And yet: sometimes we satisfy our dreams—and sometimes we don’t.

When hope is dashed or our dreams don’t come true, we must forgive. If we don’t forgive, sadness and disappointment stays with you and holds you back from new hopes and dreams. We all need new dreams—but you must let go of the old dreams in order to be renewed.

            It is my hope that everyone can pardon the past and learn that when something is over, such as a marriage or a relationship, it is really over. You did the best you could at the time—there is no right or wrong, good or bad. All we have is the here and now—and we must embrace this time.

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Bobby Drinnon receives no compensation for his on-going series in Cityview. It is his hope that readers will find something in these articles to help bring them peace.

The organization’s headquarters fell victim to a flood in February 2011, but it has subsequently been blessed with a new 80,000 square-foot space in Alcoa. It’s a vast warehouse where truckers deposit 15 million pounds of food, up from two million in the old facility, where food deliveries were actually turned away owing to lack of capacity. The space is now sufficient, but are the current donations enough to combat the problem? Not according to Executive Director Elaine Streno: “We feel that if we reach 40 million pounds of food (annually), we’d really be conquering the hunger issue in East Tennessee.”

Second Harvest runs nine programs and boasts 500 partnerships with homes for the elderly, soup kitchens, churches, and schools, to name a few. Food For Kids is one of its cornerstone programs, launched in 2003 and now the third-largest program of its kind in the United States. While food distributed to soup kitchens is largely donated, the food for the 219 participating schools (reaching over 10,000 children) is all purchased by Second Harvest, ensuring uniform quality and distribution. Social workers, teachers, and guidance counselors all play a role in identifying needy children, watchful for signs of hunger, including hoarding or taking food out of the trash—behaviors that are “not as uncommon as you might think,” according to Youth Programs Director Sam Compton. Volunteers and school employees pack the non-perishable goods into new backpacks that children take home for the weekend and over school breaks. Extra food is provided for any siblings who might be at home, and the agency checks for allergy problems, too.

Schools commend Second Harvest for its efficiency and discretion. Per its guidelines, the program is never referenced over a school intercom, nor are backpacks distributed in front of non-participating children. These measures help remove any stigma, as does the practice of first contacting parents with a gentle inquiry. “The response by parents is overwhelmingly positive,” says Compton. “And grandparents are even more appreciative, because they’re taking care of kids they hadn’t planned on taking care of.”

Perhaps stigma is the least worrying concern. Hunger in school correlates directly with poor concentration and learning. Taking that stress away not only improves educational outcomes, but may have longer-term benefits, too. “Receiving food has to reduce stress on the child,” asserts Gail Root, director of program development at Second Harvest. “Imagine sitting in the classroom on a Friday having had your lunch, but not knowing when you’re going to eat until Monday.”

Though it’s almost unthinkable to criticize a food charity, lack of education, poverty, and drugs are just some of the root problems that contribute to hunger, particularly in children. “Some people would call us enablers,” Streno herself confesses. “But to start looking at all these social problems—if we did that, we’d lose sight of our mission.” Tennessee’s poverty rate is above the national average, according to Census Bureau Statistics, and the Department of Agriculture estimated in 2010 that as many as 26 percent of Tennessee children lived in poverty. Combine that disadvantage with lack of education, and the result means that many families can’t manage through hard times. “Some parents are disabled, or might be employed with poor housing or poor insulation, so a utility bill of $600 can be crippling,” points out Christi Kirk, campus manager at Spring Hill Elementary School, where 35 children take part in the backpack program. Kirk is also program director of the Program GRAD (Graduation Really Achieves Dreams), designed to help kids stay in school. “Tennessee definitely has a pocket of counties where education is not the priority—poverty is,” says Streno. “We did a hunger study (in 2009-2010), and the vast majority of people we’re feeding did not finish high school.” Kirk maintains that the backpack program is helping reverse that trend. “The kids who entered the program when I got here eight years ago are now graduating—I haven’t seen any drop out. Second Harvest does a really good job providing training on helping prevent ongoing poverty, and providing nutrition aid.”

Apart from children, the elderly are at most risk of food insecurity. Supermarket chains such as Kroger, Food City, Wal-Mart, and Fresh Market, along with about 10 area restaurants, donate food that would otherwise be discarded and are rewarded with tax deductions. Second Harvest bears the cost of transporting those goods to soup kitchens, low-income housing blocks, and homes for the elderly. “Our agencies are diverse,” says Streno. “Some are spiritual in nature; some ask questions to make sure people aren’t trying to rob the system, others do not. The only requirement we have is that the agencies cannot ask for anything in return for the food.” Trucks efficiently deliver within the same county as the store from which food is retrieved. Second Harvest’s new space will allow for programs to grow, and Root is hopeful that supermarkets like Publix, Trader Joe’s, and Costco will similarly donate should they open in the area.

The charity is challenged by its overseer, Feeding America, to meet tough goals with respect to people and schools served. The cheerful staff of Second Harvest seem motivated and earnest about meeting those goals. Second Harvest spends about 5 percent of its $27 million budget on salaries and administrative costs. 92 cents of every dollar goes directly to program services. Its new building was purchased in a fortuitous moment from a bankrupt firm for $4 million, about half the property’s value. Streno credits corporate donors such as Regal Cinemas and Pilot Corporation, but also many individual donors, some of whom even mail in dollar bills. “We wouldn’t even be in this building and providing this many meals if it wasn’t for this community’s support.” Says Kirk, “I always recommend this charity because I can see how much money goes directly back to the people who need it most.”

As it grows, Second Harvest is also making nutrition a priority, providing education in addition to food. The East Tennessee Obesity Task Force works with some of the schools and would like to pilot a program to add fresh produce to the backpacks. Root says she’d like to add peanut butter to meals for the elderly. These steps are expensive and not always logistically feasible. Streno maintains, however, that the nutrition issue is part of raising the charity’s profile. “It’s very difficult for a family of four to live on healthy food at the poverty level,” she says. “It’s cheaper to eat junk food. And then throw in the obesity issue –it is sensitive, but our business plan is changing to focus more on this.”

The charity’s mantra of delivering services in as non-bureaucratic a way as possible has ensured that it is “first a good steward of resources,” says Compton. Through formal evaluations and anecdotal feedback, Second Harvest remains flexible to the individual needs of its partners, and it is pushing inexorably toward the goal of meeting all the hunger needs in its 18 county service area. There is a paradox in celebrating the growth of an organization that a society with such wealth should not need. But the need exists, and Second Harvest is striving to set an example of non-judgment and humanity that the community around it can only hope to match.

How You Can Help

Sponsor a School: Second Harvest has plans to start its Food for Kids backpack program in about 30 more schools. The average annual cost per school is $3,000, which serves every child and every sibling at home. Some schools have as few as a dozen needy children; others may have 90.

Donate as an individual: Any amount goes directly to the purchase of food.

Volunteer: You can offer assistance as an individual or a group at Second Harvest’s warehouse to help agencies with pick-up of food, or help sort and label canned goods and pack boxes of food in the salvage area.

Host a food drive: You can help to provide Second Harvest with much needed non-perishable items such as canned proteins, canned vegetables and fruit, cereals, grains and pastas through your place of work, school, or church.

Go to www.secondharvestetn.org for more information and opportunities.

Terry Turner is a 2012 Cityview Entrepreneur and the owner of All Occasions Party Rentals, Knoxville premier source for creating the perfect wedding, festival, or corporate or social event.

Terry Turner: Eddie, why did you want to enter politics and be part of Madeline Rogero’s new administration?

Eddie Mannis:  I ask myself that question every morning! I’m a native Knoxvillian and I’ve always lived in Knoxville. I’ve been involved in the community [Mannis oversees the HonorAir Knoxville program, which recognizes the service of the region’s World War II and Korean War veterans] and I was comfortable in the private sector—but I want to continue to make a difference in Knoxville. 

TT: What is your role in Mayor Rogero’s administration?

EM: My official title is Deputy to the Mayor and Chief Operations Officer. I report directly to Mayor Rogero. I am responsible for the operations of the city, so I like to say that I am responsible for all the moving parts of the city. Anything that goes wrong—I am responsible for it.

TT: Who gets the credit when things go well?

EM: The mayor.

TT: How does a conservative businessman find his way into what is perceived as a liberal administration?

EM: I am fiscally conservative, but I think outside the box, because sometimes I think Republicans think too narrowly. I also think as a businessperson. Mayor Rogero is not just the liberal politician people think she is. The Mayor governs more to the center than she does to the left. She is business friendly, and she has appointed other business people to key roles, including Christi Branscom as Director of Public Works. We can’t produce results from opposite political sides—we have to meet in the middle.

TT: How does your business background help you in your new role?

EM: People are the same wherever you are, whether it’s in the private sector or the public sector. I am able to evaluate a situation, offer solutions, and then implement the plan. I’m evaluating before anyone knows I’m evaluating. In the public sector, implementation is a little slower—but I appreciate that and I respect the process. There are a lot of similarities between my role now in the public sector and what it used to be like for me 26 years ago when I started my company. I am really defining my role. There is no handbook.

TT: What do you think about the recent Knoxville Tourism & Sports Corporation contretemps?

EM: With every problem, there is an opportunity. We now have an opportunity for Knoxville to redefine itself. What do we really want? How do we want to promote the city? Do we want to promote athletics? The University? Oak Ridge? Downtown Knoxville? The waterfront? We are having these conversations among members of the administration—because we have to know what we want to achieve.

TT: You are an entrepreneur. How can Knoxville’s schools be educating the next generation of business leaders? What do our future entrepreneurs lack today?

EM: I’d like to see more students out in the real world and in the workplace so that they can understand what it really takes to run a business. I also think entrepreneurs are very driven—and that might just be innate.  

TT: What drives you to make Knoxville a better place? 

EM: I take pride in Knoxville. I want to see Knoxville reach its full potential.  When people say, “We want to be like Asheville, we want to be like Nashville, we want to be like Chattanooga”—

TT: What if we want to be like Knoxville?

EM: We can develop our own path. We just need to do it.

Gatorland

While you’re in Florida, one thing you shouldn’t miss is the Alligator Capital of the World. From the gator mouth entrance to the Screamin’ Gator Zipline, you’ll get as close to alligators as anyone would want to be without a machete. Several habitats allow you to see these fearsome reptiles in their natural environment. For an extra $10, you can even wrestle a ‘gator and sit on its back for a picture. www.gatorland.com

House of Blues

With a menu by celebrity chef Aaron Sanchez, it’s hard to go wrong at the House of Blues. Diners get to the front of the line for the concerts, too, and the small, intimate venue features performers such as Enrique Iglesias and Guns N’ Roses. On Sundays, reserve ahead for the Gospel Brunch with a fabulous Southern buffet and live music. www.houseofblues.com

Jellyrolls

This nightlife spot is a great place to spend an evening. It’s just off the Disney Boardwalk, and the drinks are great—but they can’t compete with the music. The musicians who play the dueling pianos are beyond compare, and guests can request any song they like. Feel free to sing along and dance in the aisles. Keep in mind that Jellyrolls is a 21-and-up venue. www.jellyrolls.us

Painting with a Twist

Tired of the same old, same old? Give a new kind of experience a try at Painting with a Twist. Paint, canvas, and brushes are provided, and instructors guide you through each step of creating the masterpiece you never thought you’d paint. Food and drinks are available for purchase. At the end of the night, you’ll have a painting to take home with you—not bad! www.paintingwithatwist.com%