"As an alcoholic," said the late, great Robin Williams, "you will violate your standards quicker than you can lower them." Fortunately for Asheville, North Carolina's Emily Scott-Cruz, she took control of her life before alcohol wrested it from her. Emily realized she had a problem while she was in college. "My life was definitely unmanageable and it was because I have no power over alcohol," she recalls. Her moment of clarity came after a car crash resulted in a DUI conviction. "I would consider myself to have a higher bottom than some, but that doesn't mean anything," she added, presumably in reference to the proverbial "rock bottom" and not to the relative length of her legs. Her crural supports do, however, bear unambiguous tattoos commemorating the new passion in her life: "PING" on the right thigh and "PONG" on the left. She picked up the positive habit while struggling to stay sober in famously boozy collegiate social situations. "Everyone around me still drank, but I did not and there was a ping pong table at the place my friends would hang out at," recalls Emily. "So I started playing and it was something I could do comfortably without having to think about what was going on around me." Now sober for over a year, Emily attends a different kind of meeting than most alcoholics: she is a regular at the Asheville Table Tennis Club. Aided by the humility one learns in recovery, she is better prepared to work toward gradual, long-term improvement than most club neophytes. "I think I learn the most by losing," Emily reflected. "So, I come to places like the Table Tennis Club where there are people significantly better than me and I lose badly." While she may not be Asheville city champion (yet), Emily finds peace in the frenetic chaos of the game. "Ping-pong is something that plays a big role in my sobriety," she says. "It's a way that I can actively meditate and stay very present. So, I do it probably addictively." We are all creatures of habit, dependent on more crutches than we can even consciously recognize. Many habits, however, can be positive forces in our lives. For Emily Scott-Cruz, the unquestionably addictive sport of table tennis offers the structure she needs to maintain her sobriety and her standards. And to keep her bottom high.

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