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 to be alcoholic. Yeah, I'm an alcoholic with alcoholism and thanks for your share and

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 circumstances are so different and circumstances a lot of times people get confused and think

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 that's alcoholism and nothing should be further from the truth. So Ben, thanks so much for

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 going through the archives and finding a drastic old bullet to come up here and share. I'm

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 definitely the type of alcoholic that has been rocketed into a fourth dimension of existence

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 which I had not even dreamed possible. Let me tell you, I smoked a lot of angel dust,

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 it'll have cocaine, probably six, seven hundred LSD trips. I don't know how many nights in

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 a row I stayed up for how many years and drank and drank and drank and drank. I mean, I'm

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 the type of alcoholic that takes a U.N.M. syringe, puts it in a bottle and put it on

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 a bottle and sticks it out of my bag and shoots it. I mean, I'm the type of guy, why spend

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 all night getting drunk when you can get snot, slinging, can't stand up, want to puke, can't

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 walk, think you can dance, over dehydrated, drunk and, you know, like five seconds. Why

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 spend the whole night doing that? I'm the type of drunk that, you know, it's like if

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 you're going to drink all day, you got to start when you first wake up, you know, commitment

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 to the cause, that's all. So I was born in the middle of the last century, just like

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 you. I got to my first meeting a couple of weeks after my 30th birthday and the deal

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 was people have been coming over the house for 10 years, you know, get court cases, what

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 have you, and try to get me to go to meetings. And I was like, oh, they'd be all excited

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 and hyped up about going to meetings. And, well, tell me about these meetings. Was it,

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 well, there's people just like us, but they don't get landed anymore. It's like, well,

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 why do I want to go hang out with them? I want to stay stoned. I love the effect produced

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 by alcohol and all the very little sidekicks, dry goods, stuff that grows out of the ground,

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 stuff that grows out of manure, you know, mushrooms, whatever, you know, it's just like,

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 you know, my first block out, I was still in the diaper. My mom, I was sort of drinking

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 early. I was a periodic from, you know, when I was young like that, but that didn't last

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 long, you know, before I was able to legally drink, I was just getting loaded every day.

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 I mean, my mom left my dad with a Catholic, you know, and in a Catholic church, you don't

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 get divorced, so my mom had the choice of staying with an abusive man, getting kicked

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 out of the Catholic church, so she got kicked out of the Catholic church. Me being with

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 my grand monster, I mean, my grandmother, you know, like you were talking about a periodic

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 with the worst kind of, see, like with me, if you see me before I got here, I'm always

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 drunk and loaded. And if I'm not, I'm trying to figure out how to get something to get

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 drunk and loaded because I need, I have alcoholism, it needs to be treated. And see, they're going

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 to be treated with the spiritual remedy contained in the 12-step process of Alcoholics Anonymous,

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 the program, or I'm going to treat it with alcohol and whatever else I can put into me.

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 And what happened was my grandmother lived in depression, poor lady, careful, hated life,

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 just couldn't stand men and all the hatred she had for men, she took out some men, you

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 know, she did things to me like, oh, I'm just a little diaper bike running around, she's

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 knocking me upside the headband, get that look off your face, she looked just like your

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 dad, no, I'm knocking off your face, you ain't gonna cry, I'll give you a reason to cry about

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 it, dropkick me across the living room floor. Just, you know, the physical abuse, it was

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 tough enough, but the mental and the emotional abuse, still from time to time comes up, but

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 it doesn't have much power anymore. Do you see some therapy in the light of 12-step working,

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 being clean and sober and living this new AA way of life? Yeah, my first time, my grandfather

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 was having a poker party, you know, and I'm just walking in the table doing more, more,

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 you know, now it's just a championship for things to come. It's always more, more, you

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 know, drink more, more and everything. And basically what happens, I grew up in the San

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 Fernando Valley in the sixties, it was a great time in the United States, it was bad, good

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 guys were getting bothered, those dresses were getting shorter, you ladies stopped wearing

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 bras, which made the view even better, you know, it was a perfect time to grow up, you

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 know, I loved it, sex, drugs and rock and roll, we were just out to have fun and that's

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 what I did, and I had no idea there was a problem. I loved the party, you know, I just

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 loved the party. How many of you know the Fabulous Freak Brothers? Oh my God, out of

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 the sixties cartoon characters? Well, one of their mottos was, times of no money and

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 drugs will get you through better than times of drugs and no money. So I spent all my money

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 on drugs. My mom eventually got married again, and she married a guy who was a World War

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 II sergeant in Germany, and he was pretty disciplined, and he really taught me how to

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 drink, because whatever, your Saturday mornings have to get up at like six o'clock and be

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 on the halfway seven, my mom would pick breakfast by nine o'clock, go out and eat breakfast,

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 work until about one or two should have lunch, and then we'd shoot pool for three or four

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 hours, he'd polish up a fifth or fourth of the room, while we were shooting pool, and

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 he'd go out with my mom, they'd go do their stuff, I'd go out and, you know, do my stuff.

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 Sixties, seventies, it was far more about drugs than alcohol, drugs, all different kinds

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 of stuff like that, starting with commercial weed, mini bennies, drugs, all the pharmaceuticals,

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 everything, just a plethora of everything, all the time, just more and more. And see,

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 what makes me alcoholic was really two simple things that it says, there's a big book, you

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 know, I drink when I don't want to, or when I start to drink, I drink better than I want

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 to. Two question interview to find out if we're alcoholic. How many people are in the

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 first year? Welcome to Alcoholics Anonymous, man. John, right? I'm sorry he's come to this,

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 dude. But the good news is, this is the solution. The bad news is, we're the solution. Because

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 like this format stated, the primary way this works is what's actually working with another

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 for fun and for free. What happens is that God within us works to talk to the guy within

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 you and that's how we get sober and maintain sobriety. I'm beyond human aid. I have alcoholism.

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 The disease I have, I'm beyond human aid. I need God. Right here, right now, if I don't

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 have the program of Alcoholics Anonymous, I've been working in this moment. See, the

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 only thing that will drive me to drink and get loaded is sobriety. I get loaded from

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 a sober state. I mean, my sobriety date is April 11th, April 12th, 1986. You know why

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 it's April 12th, 1986? Because on April 11th, 1986, I was headed to an H&I board meeting.

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 I had had sobriety dates in '83, '84. I don't think I had any in '85. I came in, I had a

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 very different set of principles that I did by. In '86, I was on the H&I board. I probably

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 had three pals at the time I was on the board for the San Fernando Valley. The H&I board

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 meeting was out in Arcadia someplace and I was smoking a couple of packs of cigarettes

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 a day at that time. One of them was a kind of roach that was about that big and I was

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 working in. You know what? I got one hit off that roach. After not being loaded for a while,

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 I was really loaded after that one hit. Now see, the non-alcoholic, my plan was to take

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 one hit, put it down. You know what I did? I smoked that thing until I sucked that whole

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 cherry down my throat. You know? I said, "Should I bring me to an H&I event?" Let me tell you.

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 When I got there, I got there late because when I'm limited, I'm late. I'm not waiting

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 for you. You're going to wait for me. That's one of the environments of Kurt Kirby being

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 Kurt Kirby back in those days. I was like, "God, you're willing to get me a Kurt." I'm

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 like, "Yeah. Got anything to drink? Something to munch on?" The last time I put chemicals

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 in me, I had a good time. I got here. I got to my first meeting a couple of weeks after

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 my 30th birthday which was in the summer of 1983. It was a perfect meeting for me. I told

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 you people have been trying to get me to meetings for years. It was in West Hollywood called

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 Architects of Adversity. It was a closed meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous. I was not an alcoholic.

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 I was a hope to die pilfering. You know what happened? I kept coming to these AA meetings

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 and I caught alcoholism. John, I don't know what you know about alcoholism, but it's incurable.

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 Once you got it, you got it. You can't get rid of it. The good news is we have a solution

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 for it. You so eloquently spoke about the 12 step process and about having a good sponsor

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 and having sponsors and being in the middle of the herd. I can trace my lineage in Alcoholics

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 Anonymous. I have a bunch of big books. One of them lists all the people all the way to

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 Dr. Bob. I guess it wasn't written about Dr. Bob because Dr. Bob's way of doing things

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 is a little bit different than Bill. It was all a 12 step process, 6 step process at that

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 point in time. Bill decided 6 are good, 12 is better. What the hell? Think about it.

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 I love things that move unexpectedly like that. Hell yeah. Everything's gonna change.

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 You know, it's like, blow with the go. Just keep moving. Keep it simple. I forgot where

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 I was when this thing was installed. Imagine, yeah, 6 steps and then 12 steps. Imagine coming

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 in here, you got a nice newcomer, you're bringing them in, you're gonna tell him about the 12

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 step process and you walk in and they're leaving. You know what? We got 24 steps now. That's

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 what Bill did to these four characters when he wrote the 12 steps. And he didn't even

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 know it was 12 steps until he went and numbered them. In fact, Mike and I go to a meeting

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 called Love and Tolerance on Wednesday nights and there's a guy that was really excited

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 named Tim about the steps and being sober and all this stuff, you know, and he wants

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 to argue with me about 6 and 7. You know, he's like, why? He's like, what's the difference

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 between character defects and shortcomings? I'm like, nothing. He goes, no, no. Now, this

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 guy was like 8 months. I even went to go with 37 years and 40 years membership. You see,

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 the only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. And I got that desire at

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 my first meeting. Up until that first meeting, I was gonna stay stoned the best of my life.

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 And what happened? See, John, why we come to meetings really is to ruin it for you newcomers.

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 You know, we can't have it in my family. We're gonna win it for you. That's what it's about,

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 dude. Oh, my God. But, you know, he wants to argue with me. I got that desire at my

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 first meeting. And basically what happened was I caught alcohol and I'm so happy I did

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 because I have a solution. I didn't know that there was a problem. I mean, every once in

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 a while I'd run into like an Al-Anon or whatever, you know, and they'd want to fix me and change

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 me and all that kind of stuff. And it's just like I would feel pitiful for a few hours

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 because he'd be doing that shit to me, you know, just like that. And then I do a couple

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 more hits and I'm fine, you know, just like like two different times. Today, we call them

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 Al's. Al's doing it, we were just bummed, you know, I was a bum a few times, you know, I lived on the streets for 12 months,

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 nine months, whatever it was. It was just, you know, Janice Joplin started about it, you know,

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 you've got nothing left to lose, you know, it's just freedom. I love Sunday Night Show and I'm homeless,

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 you know, because I walk around the city, it's so quiet, you know, you can hear things two, three, four

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 miles away, car driving or whatever. It's quite a snipe. But I tell you what, I like when I leave

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 here, I'm gonna go to my house, go to sleep in my bed, got a king size bed because I think I'm a king,

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 you know, have really nice flannel sheets on it because it's that time of year, you know, I take

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 time to spoil me. And the reason I do is I'm like my own best friend, you know, I'm in a no matter what club,

136
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 I don't drink, I don't use no matter what. So what time am I going to talk to? Okay, I just want to

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 stay somewhere crowded because I don't have a canned pitch of people come up here, you know, every

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 time five years later, it's the exact same thing. Just like every time I think I'm, thanks for hunting

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 me down. Yeah, I'm gonna speak at that meeting. Like, oh, God, just use me. Let me help somebody.

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 No, basically, there's not a whole lot of new stuff that comes out of me. I've maybe heard

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 everything I'm going to say. And most of the time I would rather hear me than a lot of you. That's why I

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 talk to me a lot. Also, I love to hear intelligent, good looking men talk, you know, just the problem

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 is if I ever catch myself going, what'd you say? Then I might have a problem. So anyway, that first

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 meeting, you know, who was there? Guys and gals, like you people, clean and sober. And you spoke

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 about spoke about they had a conscious contact with God, and the energy in that room really got

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 me. And by the end of that meeting, what happened was, I was like, Yeah, I think I'd rather not get

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 loaded than get loaded. If that's what it's like, the way you guys are. And what happened was after

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 the meeting, nobody took me, told me what I had to do, anything like that. I haven't had a whole lot

149
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 of people tell me what to do. And so I checked, I'd share what I do. And if that's what you want

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 to do, if you don't, you can keep what you got, enjoy what you got, not enjoy it, feel pitiful,

151
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 incomprehensible, demoralization, or whatever you're feeling. So anyway, what happened was

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 they got a line in front of me, you know, there were some people came up, Kurt, you got to go on

153
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 family surrenders, you're gonna die. I'm like, relax, relax, maybe somebody comes over and finds

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 me blue and almost dead. But I'm still here, you know, I like to shoot the mark and just do the

155
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 other thing, you know, when you come back. And then a few people came up to me and said, Kurt,

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 I'm so glad you're here. Welcome to Alcoholics Anonymous. Here's that book, Alcoholics Anonymous.

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 We know you're not an alcoholic, you're a drug addict. So where it says alcoholic, put in drug

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 addict, where it says alcohol, put in cocaine, speed, heroin, LSD, whatever, read the book,

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 tell us what you think. And I thought, well, there's somebody they want me to straighten

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 their book out, you know, they they know an intelligent person when they see one,

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 you know, you know, our book tells us one of the problems, selfishness, self centeredness,

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 that we believe is the root of our problem. And then somebody else came up with a directory,

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 the other really important piece of literature, second most important piece of literature we have

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 here. They go, here's our directory, here's the meeting we're going to be at Thursday,

165
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 here's the meeting we're going to be at Friday. In fact, if you want to get get there early and

166
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 help us set up, that would be great. Oh, in fact, we're going out to coffee afterwards,

167
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 you want to come with us. And you know what I thought? What do they want from me? You see,

168
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 when I got here, I was a taker, not a giver. When I'm a taker, I'm a loser. It's as simple as that.

169
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 Seems like the more I give, the more I try to share it, the richer my life becomes, and the more

170
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 at ease and comfort I have in life. Who would have thought? See, that's what you're in store for,

171
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 John. Look out. Everything. What do they say? Only one thing has to change? Anything. That's all.

172
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 Just one thing. Everything. And everything has changed. And I still think I'm looking out at

173
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 30 year old eyes, except the body's a little bit older. So anyway, then came the quandary

174
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 trying to figure this thing out. And what I found out is there's no step that says figure it out.

175
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 And what happened was, I kept going to meetings, and I finally took a sobriety day, kept getting

176
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 loaded, but just kept that sobriety day. Because, you know, after six months, I got tired of the way

177
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 you guys were looking at me, I'm still raising my hand as a newcomer. And there's people taking,

178
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 you know, chips, six month chips that I saw come in, and I'm living in the recovery house,

179
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 out by the clay house. And one of the reasons you don't get in fights, and you don't get loaded,

180
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 you have to move out. I could not get in fights, I could do that. But I couldn't not get loaded.

181
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 And see, even now I can't not get loaded. But we can get I can stay sober with you guys. See,

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 I still have no power. First step is such a clear step. What it says is we admitted we were

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 powerless over alcohol. Admitted, I tend to think the word admitted in that sentence means to let

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 in kind of like we get admitted to a sporting event or the movies or whatever it is. I let that

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 idea in. You said you were a conceited alcoholic, conceited to your innermost selves that you were

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 alcoholic. So I got to let that in way, way, way inside. And, you know, it doesn't say in that

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 step. We're alcoholic says we admitted it. But we admitted we were powerless. And see, I know what

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 powerlessness is. Powerlessness is when I'm standing in front of the Honorable Judge Hughes

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 in Division 101, dressed looking nice like this because I want to fool him, waiting for him to

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 tell me what the next five to 25 years of my life are going to be like. Because see, the police don't

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 play fair. They come to my house and take me away, telling me I'm having way too much fun on my

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 schedule, my road to a happy destiny. They want to give me a break. You know, I'm not safe for society.

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 Anyway, what happened was I took an inventory, probably the best inventory in the history of

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 Alcoholics Anonymous. I took it on speed, you know, just a little medicinal speed because

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 my brain was so broke. I couldn't figure that shit out. Resentments? It was a resentment. You know,

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 my sponsor gave me a whole list of ideas of who, you know, it's just like I couldn't figure it out.

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 It was just medicinal speed. I just shot like, you know, twenty dollars worth and he's like,

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 "Oh, that makes sense. Yeah, I got that shit. Such good inventory. Oh, yeah." You know,

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 basically what happened was I turned it in. I got a hundred percent plus extra credit on it,

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 you know. No, I sat there with my sponsor with whole sweats running down and I was being as

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 honest as I had ever been with anybody in my life. And it was a scary thing to do. Anyway,

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 I'm sponsoring copious numbers of people taking people through, you know, the first seven steps

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 in a Monday night group. You know, we take people and we run around a lot of people going like,

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 "I'm in a covered half hour." No, fix you. We've been in a meeting on Monday night, 6 o'clock,

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 going till midnight and 3 o'clock, 6 o'clock the next day, taking through the first seven steps.

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 And basically what happened was I was on my way to that H&I board meeting on April 11th, 1986.

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 Took a cake around to the board meeting the next day, didn't tell anybody. I just thought it was

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 none of your business that I smoked blue and shot a little speed up, you know. So I was doing

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 everything else except not getting loaded. I mean, what happened was a buddy of mine,

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 one night I had a bachelor pad here in Woodland Hill, this perfect bachelor pad with a four

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 bedroom, had a great stereo, black bottom swimming pool, jacuzzi, all the necessary things for fun

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 for a young guy. We had a present in February of '88. He came for two years from me for four years

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 and he looked across the living room and he says, "Tape, you know, I can honestly say I haven't been

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 loaded in two years." And I couldn't look back at Lenny and go, "You know what, dude, I haven't been

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 loaded in four years." And that lie died inside of me. What happened is I'm in a couple of meditation

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 books every morning. I'm trying, I'm meditating, I'm sponsoring a bunch of people, taking them

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 through the stuff, doing all this stuff, have commitments every day, you know, every activity

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 stuff. And I feel good. You know, it's just like, it's easy for me to lie to you guys. I grew up

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 with people, people who told me don't lie, but I'm really good at getting you to believe what I want

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 you to believe without actually telling you the lie. You know, I'm just so dishonest. And that's

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 what chapter five, that first paragraph tells us, you know, who makes this program, who doesn't and

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 why. And it's all about honesty, which says, "There's rarely ever seen a person fail to definitely

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 follow their pain." Now listen to this, those who do not recover are people, there's two kinds,

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 who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program. And it's usually men and

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 women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. You know, I was incapable

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 of being honest with myself. I'm not that way anymore, but I was up until that point. And

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 basically what happened was it was when that lie died inside of me, and I knew I had to get honest,

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 okay. I almost saw my ninth step work, I was really enjoying life, had a good job. Things

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 were really nice on the outside, they were really comfortable on the inside, except for that one

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 little lie. And basically what happened was it was really, really simple. I went to God and I go,

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 "God, you know what?" Every person that I've heard that lied about their sober day, they went out and

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 got loaded and created even more havoc and more problems than they came in with. And I came in

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 with a lot of situations that had to be rectified, that I got to rectify and clean up. And basically

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 what happened was I got to go to a meeting one night that I had started years before and get

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 honest. And let me tell you, at that moment when it was a candlelight man, I said, "You know, guy,

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 why ask God for the courage?" And I don't know how you guys pray, but when I ask God for certain

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 specific things, see, God is really old and sometimes she moves way too slowly. So I give

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 her praise, you know, it's like, "I want the courage and I want it by this date." You know,

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 if it's God's will, the courage came long before the date. Went to the meeting, I'm sitting in

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 there, it's candlelight meeting, I'm like, "You know what, guys? I've been lying to my whole time.

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 I don't even know what my sobriety date is, but I've been lying to you guys." And at that moment,

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 there was such a peace inside that I knew that forever everything was going to be okay. Whether

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 it felt comfortable or not. And what that was, was I was all in on this deal. I'd completely given

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 myself to this simple program at that moment in time. And basically what happened was my life

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 really changed a lot after that. I ended up impregnating another girl, you know, and instead

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 of abortion this time, we had a pregnancy. In fact, I talked to that guy today, I think it was

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 an hour and 15 minutes when I was done because my phone automatically touched people, you know,

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 he's one of my best friends. And he's got a brother, he's one of my other best friends.

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 Another one of my best friends is Mike Spence right here. If you don't have a Mike Spence in

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 your life, I hope you have a guy as wonderful as Mike is to me, you know, and I hope I am to him,

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 and I think I am. You know what, we build relationships with people. My two sons are 32

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 and 34, and before I got here, there was no way I could have kids. I was way too selfish and self-centered.

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 Kids, oh my God, they're so icky, you know, just like get away, you know, it's just like,

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 you know why they're called dependents on the tax form? Because they depend on us so much,

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 like I didn't want any of that crap. I was too selfish and self-centered, and you know what I

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 found out? Once I got clean and sober, the transformation that the 12-step promises us,

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 a complete rearrangement of everything, I found out what was always inside of me was a compassionate,

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 caring, loving, understanding person that just wants to be nice and love people. I couldn't have

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 had a better day today. I woke up in my house, went to the grocery store, bought some stuff,

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 went home, made a nice breakfast, got dressed, went and umpired the game out in the Gore Hills.

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 I love spending time on the baseball field. I'm the most loved guy on the baseball field,

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 the umpire, you know, between El Camino and the Gore Hills. Basically, there were some kids at

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 El Camino that I've umpired. They were so happy to see me run into a lady who's in our fellowship.

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 It was one of the parents at El Camino, another one who's a parent who I haven't seen in like a

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 year, whose stepson is playing for Gore, so we got to check quite a bit and get caught up and stuff.

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 And you know, I went home, almost fell asleep, talked to my son. He called back when I backed

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 into the driveway. So I talked to him for an hour plus. And it's just, I get to live such an

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 incredible life out there. I'll tell you, I tell you, we've got five minutes to go. I take care of

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 five things every day. And I could talk for 35 minutes on each one of these things. But the five

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 things I take care of every day is mind, body, spirit, family, friends, and the other effort,

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 finances, because money is important here. I take care of my mind as I'm constantly feeding it new,

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 diverse information. I'm reading new stuff, gathering new information, living life with

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 an open mind. Oh, look at that. The light came off. Five minutes. Good job. Good job, Jojo. Yes.

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 Yeah. I didn't throw those lights out because I didn't think I could talk. I loved listening to

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 me talk. I didn't talk until midnight. Easy. So mind, body, oh my God. In 2019, I'm running

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 by the planet just having a good time. I had the little thought, but I'd had hepatitis A, B, and C,

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 got rid of the C, got tested for a year, came back, morphed into a different genotech,

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 went in, got rid of it again, got tested for a couple of years, didn't come back,

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 stopped going to the doctor. It's like four years later, we have the little God voice,

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 you know, male intuition, whatever you want to call it. Because see, I work hard to keep

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 a conscious contact with God. And I had the thought, "You shouldn't let your blood work,

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 God." I'm like, "No, I feel great. I'm like a lot of people 10, 20 years younger than me.

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 They can't keep up with me. They're having trouble keeping up with me. I'm fine." About

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 two weeks later, I have the same thought. I go in and have this poor doctor. I tell him my story,

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 you know, about everything. He's like, "We're going to run every test in the world around you,

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 right?" I call back about four days later when I'm supposed to call back. And they go, "Oh,

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 you have to come in and talk to the doctor for results." And that's never good news because if

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 everything's fine, I'm just like, "Yeah, you're great. Thanks for coming in. We'll see you in

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 six months." I go in, "This poor doctor, you would have thought he was getting a death sentence."

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 He's like, "Your hepatitis C has come back. You have liver cancer, stage 4 cirrhosis of the lip."

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 And see, he can't scare me with that shit, you know? You know why? God's in charge. She's got

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 the perfect plan. Whatever's going to happen is going to happen. I haven't been hanging on

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 back for 30 plus years. It's not a big deal to me. So what do we do? Get rid of the hep C,

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 then the liver? He's like, "Do you know how serious this is?" And I'm like, "Yeah, that's what

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 I want to know. What's the plan of action?" You already know what the problem is. Anyway,

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 tomorrow will be the celebration of getting rid of the liver cancer and being cancer-free for

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 four years, which is really, really a full thing. You know, God has brought so many great doctors

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 to us, and my job is to really lead them. Bless you. Do it again, and I'll tell you to stop it.

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 I love doing that. Anyway, checked in for one night at UCLA, and then probably had 20 whatever

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 sleepovers in 2020 at the Hotel Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. Give me complications with

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 the liver and the wild like clothing and infections and all kinds of stuff. Nothing to do with COVID.

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 You know, Mike was such a great friend. He'd pick me up, take me there, drop me off, come back later,

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 pick me up. You know, like going on Tuesday, I'm supposed to get up that Tuesday evening and not

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 get out until Friday. You know, it's just like, they've only one in one time. You don't know if

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 you're coming in a deadly line. Mike, what do you want me to sign? Let's go. You know, it's just

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 like, it's not that I wanted to die. I just knew that God has a perfect plan. I have such a reliance

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 and a trust that I got nothing to worry about. My life is really, really simple. Mind, body, spirit.

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 You know what? I see constantly through prayer and meditation to improve my conscious contact

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 with God. I live in the 10 step. To me, the 10 step isn't some writing thing at the end of the

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 day, month or year. It's a walk around step. So it's very clearly we've entered the world of the

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 spirit. What does that mean? I've left the world of self behind and entered into the world of the

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 spirit with God. One minute? Yeah, one minute. So the 10 step is really, really simple. It says to

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 watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and prayer, the four things from the four step.

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 You know what? You're sitting here and you don't think you're God's favorite? You are. I think

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 we're all God's favorite. You know what? We've been given such a priceless gift here, sobriety.

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 Oh my God. I'm so lucky. This is the best thing that's ever happened to me was that first meeting

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 of Alcoholics Anonymous and then being able to pick this way of life up and practice it on a

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 daily basis. I just get to hang out with somebody I love all day, every day. And that's me, you

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 know? And then God puts a bunch of really cool people in front of me and I get to add a lot of

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 joy to their life. I get to give rather than take. Time's up. Thanks for letting me share.

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 Thanks, Kurt.