A Drunk, Like You p398-406

Hi everyone,

My apologies on sending this out late this week, I've been battling a little bit of a cold lately. Anywho, I'd like to thank Dave W. for sharing his excellent story with us last week, nothing helps recovery along like a heavy dose of humor & depravity and Jesus Dave delivered in spades!! Also I'd like to remind everyone of the upcoming AA convention in Manuel Antonio that's taking place from May 6-8th. We're still working on the details of organizing our group to get out there but let me know if your interested and go online to register now - It's FREE!! (to register anyways, you pay later!!)

This week we'll be reading A Drunk, like You p398-406. This was the first time for me reading it and I got a lot out of it. Aside from the fact that I always love listening to another Member of the Tribe breaking barriers by showing that alcoholism is no respecter of race, religion or creed, proving you jew *i mean too* can be an alcoholic, but I loved this writer's emphasis on the recovery portion of his story.

I know each personal history is crucial to gaining the trust of other alcoholic by providing grounds for identification, but too often do we confuse our history with our drunk-a-log. Those bits'n'pieces of our stories that illuminate those dark twists of character that our alcoholism gave us, I can only take them in small doses. Maybe I've become a little jaded, a little cynical or maybe even just a little spiritually mature.... but beyond a few riveting tales of debauchery and insanity.  To me, a story that's knee deep it what once was but lacks a meaningful turning point is like talking your sweetheart into going to a hotel only to find there are no vacancies - a big let down!!

For me, the hardest thing was finding (& keeping) this spiritual awakening talked about in step 12. All the boozing, philandering and stupidity was actually quite easy by comparison. I had a masters in alcoholism and was working on getting my phD when I came in but sobriety was a whole new bag of chips for me.

Now maybe I'm being a little self-centered and not thinking about the new guy, for whom you might arguably say these drunk-a-logs are intended, but I really think you could sum up the vast knowledge of getting sober into 2 words; "don't drink"... yes sir, that's it!! Whatever the hell it was that made you get to that point where you finally asked for help it all culminated with not taking that next first drink.

On the other hand, staying sober - consistently staying away from that first drink and staying in that state of gratitude, service and love which makes living life seem like a privileged that's meant to be savored a day at a time instead of some god forsaken chore  - that's something I'm fascinated by and every bit of advice & help I can get along the way is infinitely valuable!  

Happy 24hrs,

David t.