1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,040 Good evening, my name is Tim and I'm an alcoholic. I'm glad to be here tonight with you, glad to be 2 00:00:05,040 --> 00:00:12,160 sober. Ben, thanks for inviting me down. I've been sober since November 16th 1985 and for that I'm 3 00:00:12,160 --> 00:00:18,560 really grateful and genuinely surprised honestly. You know and there's some great things that come 4 00:00:18,560 --> 00:00:23,600 as a result of having the gift of sobriety for that long but there's another side to it too and 5 00:00:23,600 --> 00:00:31,440 that means I'm getting older and I mean I applied for medicare last week and I just I couldn't 6 00:00:31,440 --> 00:00:36,320 believe it you know I just couldn't believe it and my my first thought was was I didn't realize 7 00:00:36,320 --> 00:00:41,360 it wouldn't take very long to get this old and then my second thought was well it's been a good 8 00:00:41,360 --> 00:00:48,480 life you know I went from filling out the medicare application to planning my own funeral so my mind 9 00:00:49,120 --> 00:00:54,960 uh well I thank Alex for his for his talk you know I don't know Alex and I don't share a lot 10 00:00:54,960 --> 00:00:59,520 of things in common with him but I identified with everything that he said you know in alcoholics and 11 00:00:59,520 --> 00:01:04,400 illness we speak a universal language and I certainly identified with the feelings that 12 00:01:04,400 --> 00:01:10,480 he was expressing because I had exactly the same types of feelings you know I find you know as far 13 00:01:10,480 --> 00:01:17,040 back as I can remember I just felt like I was a tormented and tortured soul with not having any 14 00:01:17,040 --> 00:01:23,440 idea why I just I did not know why and then my feelings completely consumed and you know it's 15 00:01:23,440 --> 00:01:29,200 they consume me to a level where my where I just became what my feelings were and I had no idea 16 00:01:29,200 --> 00:01:34,800 that this dynamic was going on I didn't know that you know the more that I tried to figure out what 17 00:01:34,800 --> 00:01:39,120 was going on with me I knew there was something that was terribly wrong with me that didn't seem 18 00:01:39,120 --> 00:01:43,600 to be wrong with other people and the more that I tried to figure it out and the more I thought 19 00:01:43,600 --> 00:01:49,120 about it the deeper I got into all of it and the more distant and disconnected I got from from you 20 00:01:49,120 --> 00:01:54,640 and from the world around me and from the experiences of life I became increasingly confused 21 00:01:54,640 --> 00:02:00,480 and frustrated and it manifested itself with a great deal of fear and uncertainty and feelings 22 00:02:00,480 --> 00:02:07,600 of inadequacy and ultimately just a desperate loneliness and without seeing any possible 23 00:02:07,600 --> 00:02:15,840 solution and you know I've been to uh you know really some time before I came to realize really 24 00:02:15,840 --> 00:02:21,760 what the root of those problems were I thought it was a result of the very difficult and chaotic 25 00:02:21,760 --> 00:02:27,840 childhood uh but it turns out that's not the case at all turns out that I believe that I've had 26 00:02:27,840 --> 00:02:33,600 those feelings because I am completely and totally self-centered I just am that's my natural state 27 00:02:33,600 --> 00:02:38,320 and you know one of the worst things about being self-centered is you're the last person to know 28 00:02:38,320 --> 00:02:44,320 you can't see it you cannot see it and uh and it's just an insidious thing about the disease 29 00:02:44,320 --> 00:02:50,080 of alcoholism and you know to me it's more like uh you know self-centeredness or self being 30 00:02:50,080 --> 00:02:56,240 self-absorbed you know because I will literally think about how I feel every waking moment you 31 00:02:56,240 --> 00:03:00,960 know left to my own devices and that I will act according to those feelings and the problem with 32 00:03:00,960 --> 00:03:05,680 that is is that when I get so lost in myself that when I lose that connection with others 33 00:03:05,680 --> 00:03:10,640 at least my sense of identity I lose my place in life and I don't really recognize exactly what's 34 00:03:10,640 --> 00:03:16,400 going on around me my my perceptions of reality are just a little bit off because I've lost that 35 00:03:16,400 --> 00:03:21,760 connection with others and uh you know we talk about that alcoholism being a disease of perception 36 00:03:21,760 --> 00:03:27,520 that's what it means to me this is that I get so lost in myself that I just just I'm just missing 37 00:03:27,520 --> 00:03:33,760 that just a little bit and uh and for me when I drank alcohol that goes away it all goes away 38 00:03:33,760 --> 00:03:39,920 almost instantly from everything that I'm looking for that connectedness with others uh is available 39 00:03:39,920 --> 00:03:46,000 to me almost instantly and uh my understanding of the disease of alcohol is really centered on that 40 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:51,920 I believe that if I have those kinds of feelings and I drink alcohol and alcohol provides that kind 41 00:03:51,920 --> 00:03:57,840 of solution then I belong in alcohol so and uh and so that's why I'm here because that's exactly 42 00:03:57,840 --> 00:04:04,320 what happened and I started drinking I like to drink a lot and I ended up as I said it was 43 00:04:04,320 --> 00:04:09,920 kind of very chaotic and troublesome childhood my dad was a Lutheran minister and ended up on 44 00:04:09,920 --> 00:04:16,080 skid row as an alcoholic and you know my younger sister who died my mother had multiple marriages 45 00:04:16,080 --> 00:04:20,640 and by the time I was 18 I figured we had moved 21 times you know it's just that kind of thing 46 00:04:20,640 --> 00:04:24,960 it's just always place to place no stability always the new kid in town you know the whole 47 00:04:24,960 --> 00:04:33,040 that whole thing and where it ultimately took me was in my early early 20s I ended up in Crested 48 00:04:33,040 --> 00:04:40,720 Butte, Colorado now you end up in Crested Butte is a small ski resort town in central Colorado it's 49 00:04:40,720 --> 00:04:46,560 a beautiful beautiful town and you know you only end up in a place like Crested Butte when you have 50 00:04:46,560 --> 00:04:50,800 when you've gone to college you need to have a degree like I have you know I went to college and 51 00:04:50,800 --> 00:04:54,160 I was able to graduate from college which was really surprising because at that point in my 52 00:04:54,160 --> 00:04:58,720 life I had never been in one place for four years and had managed to stay in college for four years 53 00:04:58,720 --> 00:05:03,920 I think mostly because of my junior year I decided to stop drinking seriously I don't know why I can't 54 00:05:03,920 --> 00:05:08,400 explain it to you but I just I just did I was a terrible non-drinker by the way it's very 55 00:05:08,400 --> 00:05:13,040 self-righteous about it you know I just we walk around just look at people like why are you wasting 56 00:05:13,040 --> 00:05:18,960 your time you know being drunk like that you know you didn't want to be around me anyway I graduated 57 00:05:18,960 --> 00:05:24,960 from college but I had trouble in college identifying what my major would be because like Alex 58 00:05:24,960 --> 00:05:28,880 was talking about he's talking about chameleon you know I just didn't I didn't know I didn't know 59 00:05:28,880 --> 00:05:33,440 what I wanted I always was trying to figure out what other people wanted for me and so I didn't 60 00:05:33,440 --> 00:05:37,440 know what major to pick you know and then I sort of justified I was like well I don't can't really 61 00:05:37,440 --> 00:05:42,720 decide on a major because you know if you have my level of intellect and understanding you can't 62 00:05:42,720 --> 00:05:48,640 possibly limit yourself to anything so I made up my own major they let you do that at this school 63 00:05:48,640 --> 00:05:54,400 it's called an independent major and and so my major was social change through human forms of 64 00:05:54,400 --> 00:05:58,880 expression tell me what that means or maybe I would appreciate knowing because um but I do 65 00:05:58,880 --> 00:06:03,520 have a degree in that and as you might imagine there's not a lot of jobs available in that field 66 00:06:03,520 --> 00:06:07,760 and so you end up in a place like Crested Butte which is just kind of where people go to 67 00:06:07,760 --> 00:06:11,600 you know ski and hang out Crested Butte was a wonderful place when I got there and it was 68 00:06:11,600 --> 00:06:16,000 you know I always felt like I had missed the 60s and Crested Butte was like it was like reliving 69 00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:20,480 the 60s or what I had imagined it to be I mean it was just a strong sense of community and 70 00:06:20,480 --> 00:06:25,840 this feeling of family and everybody's drinking and partying and carrying on and uh and I just 71 00:06:25,840 --> 00:06:30,960 loved it I loved that feeling I love that small town environment friends that I was making and uh 72 00:06:30,960 --> 00:06:36,480 and it was great and I got there uh sort of a weird sequence of events when I got there 73 00:06:36,480 --> 00:06:42,880 and I'm going to say it was late February getting a mark something like that of uh 1981 I guess it 74 00:06:42,880 --> 00:06:48,320 was and um I you know I didn't have an address you know it was the kind of place where as long as you 75 00:06:48,320 --> 00:06:52,880 had friends you had a place to live you know just sleep on the couches or the floor with whoever 76 00:06:52,880 --> 00:06:57,360 might have me and it was just that kind of thing I didn't have a place um but what I didn't realize 77 00:06:57,360 --> 00:07:01,600 was that uh you know in these ski resort areas they have what's called mud season and that's 78 00:07:01,600 --> 00:07:06,800 where the scariest shuts down and everybody leaves I mean they're literally like 90 percent of the 79 00:07:06,800 --> 00:07:10,240 town just leaves and they plan for it they save their money and they go they're tired of the 80 00:07:10,240 --> 00:07:15,760 winter and they go to exotic warm places and you know that kind of thing and I mean I felt like the 81 00:07:15,760 --> 00:07:20,240 you know kid at the park where everybody went home to have dinner like hey where's everybody going 82 00:07:20,240 --> 00:07:24,640 you know I didn't get that message because I you know I had been living one day at a time long 83 00:07:24,640 --> 00:07:28,720 before I came to alcohol synonymous and I was living one day at a time there in Crested Butte 84 00:07:28,720 --> 00:07:34,080 but I was fortunate in that um you know a guy was nice enough I can't even remember his name but he 85 00:07:34,080 --> 00:07:38,400 was nice enough to let me house it for him so I had a place to stay so my dog Blaze and I moved 86 00:07:38,400 --> 00:07:43,440 into his house and you know it really I think back on it it was amazing because there was like no 87 00:07:43,440 --> 00:07:48,160 work I mean Crested is the kind of place that you just do whatever kind of work needs to be done to 88 00:07:48,160 --> 00:07:53,840 get by and there was no work and I got on food stamps I saw my food stamp card from that I had 89 00:07:53,840 --> 00:07:59,680 that block of government cheese and uh but somehow you know and all the you know so there's no work 90 00:07:59,680 --> 00:08:03,600 the most of the bars were shut down a couple liquor stores so he managed to get drunk every 91 00:08:03,600 --> 00:08:08,720 night and we can be exceptionally resourceful when we need to be anyway so the mud season lasted I 92 00:08:08,720 --> 00:08:13,520 don't know about six weeks or so and then this guy came back and he wanted he wanted his house back 93 00:08:13,520 --> 00:08:19,520 um which you know I don't know if I felt that was a real inconvenience for me that he came back and 94 00:08:19,520 --> 00:08:23,680 so I had to come up with you know what my plan was going to be like well where where am I going to go 95 00:08:23,680 --> 00:08:28,400 what am I going to do and uh you know I had you know I just had this feeling inside I just never 96 00:08:28,400 --> 00:08:33,680 felt like like I was a man inside not at all and and I thought well you know I need to do something 97 00:08:33,680 --> 00:08:37,920 that's really manly my next move has got to be manly it's got to be something that could really 98 00:08:37,920 --> 00:08:42,720 impress the woman you know and so uh what I decided to do I gave it a lot of thought and I thought 99 00:08:42,720 --> 00:08:47,040 well I'm just going to get a I'm going to get a tarp I'm going to string it up between two trees 100 00:08:47,040 --> 00:08:53,120 you're kind of a lean to kind of thing and I could put pine boughs underneath there and you know I'll 101 00:08:53,120 --> 00:08:57,280 I'll live under the tarp you know I used to say it was like oh I'll be like grizzly adams now it's 102 00:08:57,280 --> 00:09:00,720 like the show alone you know it's like I would just be out there in the woods you know and I 103 00:09:00,720 --> 00:09:06,560 thought that's that's a manly thing to do you know maybe maybe a stupid man but it's a manly thing 104 00:09:06,560 --> 00:09:11,200 you know and so that was my plan and so I was out one night and uh with this woman Darlene and I 105 00:09:11,200 --> 00:09:17,440 wanted to impress her with my plan and uh and so I kind of set her up to you know ask me well you 106 00:09:17,440 --> 00:09:21,520 know what are you going to do uh so I said yeah I kind of move out of this house or social where 107 00:09:21,520 --> 00:09:26,480 are you going to live and I said well I'm going to live under a tarp and she you know I always 108 00:09:26,480 --> 00:09:30,880 say this but it's just so true for me it's like it's happened to me so many times and maybe it's 109 00:09:30,880 --> 00:09:35,760 happened to you I don't know but where I have an idea and I just get stuck on the first like first 110 00:09:35,760 --> 00:09:40,720 25 percent of the idea and I think about that part of it over and over and over again but I don't 111 00:09:40,720 --> 00:09:45,040 seem to have the capacity to think it all the way through and I realized as this was coming out of 112 00:09:45,040 --> 00:09:50,160 my mouth to Darlene that this may not be as good an idea as I thought it was and she agreed with 113 00:09:50,160 --> 00:09:54,480 that by the way and she said she said well you can't live under a tarp it's 9 000 feet in the 114 00:09:54,480 --> 00:09:59,520 rocky mountains I mean that's that's crazy just you can't you can't do that I said well you know 115 00:09:59,520 --> 00:10:04,880 I can and uh she said no she said I tell you what she says I have a teepee and you can use it instead 116 00:10:04,880 --> 00:10:08,720 well let me tell you something when you're looking at living under a tarp teepee sounds pretty good 117 00:10:09,680 --> 00:10:14,160 and I had studied about an American Indian religion as part of that major and I thought 118 00:10:14,160 --> 00:10:19,680 you know yeah to be out there and kind of like a loincloth you know and I just thought you know 119 00:10:19,680 --> 00:10:25,360 the Indian religion was all kind of directions and circles and I felt so fractured inside and so 120 00:10:25,360 --> 00:10:30,080 just meandering I thought yeah this is going to be really good you know I'm going to stop drinking 121 00:10:30,080 --> 00:10:34,720 and I'm going to get healthy out there and I'm going to cut catch trout out of that that river 122 00:10:34,720 --> 00:10:38,720 I set up next to the slate river I'm going to catch trout on that slate river and cook them over 123 00:10:38,720 --> 00:10:45,120 in the open fire and I set up that teepee and I put shag carpeting inside and you know I just 124 00:10:45,120 --> 00:10:50,000 thought yeah this is really this is really going to be it and uh and I thought you know I will 125 00:10:50,000 --> 00:10:55,600 I will befriend the bear you know the deer will come eat from my hand and I thought you know the 126 00:10:55,600 --> 00:11:01,600 women are going to come flocking out there but no doubt there's going to be a line into Tim's teepee 127 00:11:01,600 --> 00:11:06,960 and it just didn't work out that way you might be surprised um here's what when you set up a teepee 128 00:11:06,960 --> 00:11:10,640 you're supposed to strip all the bark off the poles you know then hold the teepee together 129 00:11:10,640 --> 00:11:15,600 and the reason you do that is because when it rains if you don't strip the bark off the water 130 00:11:15,600 --> 00:11:20,080 collects on the bark and it rains in your teepee well who could be bothered with that and so I 131 00:11:20,080 --> 00:11:25,840 never uh I never scraped the bark off the off the teepee poles and it was the rainiest summer in like 132 00:11:25,840 --> 00:11:30,800 10 years and it rained in my teepee all the time and I just I would lay there and I think god you 133 00:11:30,800 --> 00:11:34,880 know how'd this happen again you know I'm just such a nothing ever works out for me it just 134 00:11:34,880 --> 00:11:38,880 never works out for me no sense of personal responsibility or anything just me and my 135 00:11:38,880 --> 00:11:44,080 wet dog blaze you know in the teepee and just thinking god I don't know how this how this 136 00:11:44,080 --> 00:11:49,600 happened you know it just anyway and by the way I wonder about stuff like this if you're wondering 137 00:11:49,600 --> 00:11:54,240 like well what about when you live in a teepee what about personal hygiene you know like I mean 138 00:11:54,240 --> 00:12:00,080 that river is awfully it's it's melted snow so like what'd you do and uh well I'll tell you in 139 00:12:00,080 --> 00:12:05,440 Crested Butte there's a place called Sunshine's Bathhouse and Sunshine's Bathhouse was a little 140 00:12:05,440 --> 00:12:11,920 community place and uh it was co-ed and I mean it was full-on co-ed it was co-ed locker rooms 141 00:12:11,920 --> 00:12:19,040 co-ed co-ed showers there's a big rock hot tub I mean it was co-ed and there was a lot of really 142 00:12:19,040 --> 00:12:23,760 physically fit 20-somethings running around in there and I'll tell you what I don't think I've 143 00:12:23,760 --> 00:12:30,800 ever been so clean in my life Sunshine's Bathhouse anyway I ended up moving out of the uh the bath 144 00:12:30,800 --> 00:12:37,040 house or moving out of the teepee and um and the bath house into a place and I've done a lot of 145 00:12:37,040 --> 00:12:42,960 different jobs I've worked as a logger and waiter and carpenter and shoveled snow off roofs and I 146 00:12:42,960 --> 00:12:46,960 mean you just do whatever you have to do but I ended up with a with a job tending bar a place 147 00:12:46,960 --> 00:12:53,280 called the grub stay and uh you know for a guy like me tending bar was the perfect job because 148 00:12:53,280 --> 00:12:57,920 I basically just drank my way through every shift so I never missed I never missed a night 149 00:12:57,920 --> 00:13:03,040 you know I was there all the time I make one for you one for me I you know I was the bartender 150 00:13:03,040 --> 00:13:06,240 actually because I made the drinks the way I wanted to drink them you know and I would have 151 00:13:06,240 --> 00:13:10,400 people all the time come back and ask me if I could put in a little bit more mixer in the drink 152 00:13:10,400 --> 00:13:18,080 but uh anyway I my drinking got completely and totally out of control and uh you know 153 00:13:18,080 --> 00:13:23,200 I was very much a blackout drinker I don't remember there's big swatches of time that I 154 00:13:23,200 --> 00:13:28,560 don't remember I came across a photo a couple years ago of uh it was a party in somebody's 155 00:13:28,560 --> 00:13:33,600 backyard and there was probably 35 people in this picture and at the time those people were like 156 00:13:33,600 --> 00:13:39,040 family to me you know like everybody's like family to me in that town and uh and I looked at that 157 00:13:39,040 --> 00:13:44,720 picture and I mean I recognized one person I didn't even recognize that people much less 158 00:13:44,720 --> 00:13:49,120 remember their names it was a little unnerving to think about that but I just I just didn't 159 00:13:49,120 --> 00:13:56,800 anyway I uh I just started to drink in a way that was a complete completely compulsively 160 00:13:56,800 --> 00:14:02,080 and obsessively um I don't know how much I drank I drank I mean to me I don't know any 161 00:14:02,080 --> 00:14:06,640 self-respecting alcoholic who really keeps track how much they drink I didn't want to know how much 162 00:14:06,640 --> 00:14:12,800 I drank you know I wasn't measuring it believe me I just drank all every day as much as I could 163 00:14:12,800 --> 00:14:17,520 and uh you know when you do that just bad things just start to happen to you and they they started 164 00:14:17,520 --> 00:14:22,160 to happen to me and I remember really what uh I mean I got to the point where I just didn't feel 165 00:14:22,160 --> 00:14:26,960 like I could do anything in life without taking a drink first I was completely possessed with that 166 00:14:26,960 --> 00:14:30,800 idea I didn't have to make a phone call without taking a drink first I didn't think I could do 167 00:14:30,800 --> 00:14:35,920 my laundry without taking a drink first the very first thing when I woke up in bed was to take a 168 00:14:35,920 --> 00:14:40,160 drink the very first thing and I would drink it and it would come back up I would drink it down 169 00:14:40,160 --> 00:14:45,840 again it would come back up my I could feel my body just rejecting the alcohol oh but I would 170 00:14:45,840 --> 00:14:52,880 take another drink until it finally stayed out and I remember that very clearly how alcohol affected 171 00:14:52,880 --> 00:14:58,000 at the end of my drinking was really what alcohol did to me physically that I remember more than 172 00:14:58,000 --> 00:15:03,040 anything else because it was destroying my body and I knew it and I didn't care because to me I 173 00:15:03,040 --> 00:15:08,800 could not imagine this life without taking a drink I just couldn't imagine it just didn't seem 174 00:15:08,800 --> 00:15:13,920 possible to me I remember there was a guy that used to run around Crested Butte it was uh you know 175 00:15:13,920 --> 00:15:18,080 he's the kind of guy that went around in town like that he was a self-proclaimed shaman his name was 176 00:15:18,080 --> 00:15:23,200 Stephen and he came in my room one of my big goals in life at that time was to get to bed before the 177 00:15:23,200 --> 00:15:28,640 sun came and uh I didn't meet that goal very often believe me so I would you know I'd go to bed and 178 00:15:28,640 --> 00:15:32,960 be up all night and go to bed at nine o'clock in the morning and sleep all day and one of this 179 00:15:32,960 --> 00:15:38,880 guy Stephen came into my room woke me up one day it's probably about 2 30 in the afternoon and I had 180 00:15:38,880 --> 00:15:44,000 empty bottles all over the place there's dirty clothes everywhere I mean the room is trashed 181 00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:49,280 and he came and he woke me up and uh and he looked at me and he said you're an alcoholic and my first 182 00:15:49,280 --> 00:15:55,760 reaction was wow this guy really is click plants how do you know I didn't uh I brushed him aside 183 00:15:55,760 --> 00:16:01,920 and anyway I ended up um I just remember my skin just crawling like how addicted I was to alcohol 184 00:16:01,920 --> 00:16:06,720 physically and at night my legs were just involuntarily pound the bed and I was passing 185 00:16:06,720 --> 00:16:11,920 blood and just vomit my own liver bottle every morning and this all just became it just all 186 00:16:11,920 --> 00:16:16,800 became acceptable it's just how I lived my life and I ended up coming out to Southern California 187 00:16:16,800 --> 00:16:23,760 at that time and in the summer of 1985 because when they go and get stuff those guys go live with 188 00:16:23,760 --> 00:16:29,840 their moms and that's what I did and I came out here and I was here for a short time and 189 00:16:29,840 --> 00:16:34,240 I was 26 years old and I ain't looking in the hospital because my liver just completely failed 190 00:16:34,240 --> 00:16:40,960 it just shut down it could no longer alcohol had prohibited my liver to be able to function 191 00:16:40,960 --> 00:16:45,440 normally anymore it just wouldn't do it and uh I remember I was in the hospital and 192 00:16:45,440 --> 00:16:52,880 doctor came in he said you know if you continue to drink and I just looked me in the eye and I said 193 00:16:52,880 --> 00:16:57,280 no let me tell you because you see I just couldn't I couldn't imagine life without a drink I just 194 00:16:57,280 --> 00:17:01,280 couldn't imagine you know I was in there for a short period of time I was in there for three 195 00:17:01,280 --> 00:17:06,160 days you know the fourth day I had a spiritual experience and stuff of my stuff followed the 196 00:17:06,160 --> 00:17:11,360 doctors and just completely unrelated to our conversation I just blurted out I said I'm gonna 197 00:17:11,360 --> 00:17:15,760 talk and there's nothing I've been wrestling with there's nothing I'd given any thought to 198 00:17:15,760 --> 00:17:20,240 whatsoever it just came out of my mouth and he said uh I said can you look me in the eye and say 199 00:17:20,240 --> 00:17:25,600 that I looked in the eye and said and like that that complete obsession and compulsion of drink 200 00:17:25,600 --> 00:17:30,160 was gone it was listed I had been touched by the spirit there was no question I tell you I admire 201 00:17:30,160 --> 00:17:34,800 those of you walk in here and ask for help because I'm not I don't have that kind of backbone I know 202 00:17:34,800 --> 00:17:38,720 I'd rather drink myself to death than walk through that door and ask somebody to help and so I really 203 00:17:38,720 --> 00:17:43,200 believe that's the only way that I could've gone so it's the only reason that I'm standing here 204 00:17:43,200 --> 00:17:49,360 tonight and uh I got going on this program with folks and all this you know I went through the 205 00:17:49,360 --> 00:17:56,480 12 steps and I listened to speakers like myself and I I heard all the spiritual attitudes and 206 00:17:56,480 --> 00:18:01,600 stories of inspiration um and I'll be honest with you I go home at night and I lay in bed 207 00:18:01,600 --> 00:18:04,480 with them I don't know what they're talking I don't know what they're talking about I don't 208 00:18:04,480 --> 00:18:09,120 I mean I did the 12 steps what like where is it where is it I don't get it where is it I don't see 209 00:18:09,120 --> 00:18:14,720 it and uh they understand what working this program they continue working the steps we're gonna what 210 00:18:14,720 --> 00:18:19,840 are you talking about understanding I can look back on it now and realize that my sponsor at the 211 00:18:19,840 --> 00:18:24,400 time had me working the steps without me realizing it because one thing that one of the first things 212 00:18:24,400 --> 00:18:30,880 he did was through his direction he gave me a structure to my life and so my life was no longer 213 00:18:30,880 --> 00:18:37,680 managed he was building at least the foundation through having a manageable life I didn't even 214 00:18:37,680 --> 00:18:42,880 know it I didn't even know that that's what we're doing I've since come to understand how much 215 00:18:42,880 --> 00:18:46,800 freedom there is not having to make too many choices everything I did not know that I did 216 00:18:46,800 --> 00:18:52,400 not know that and I slowly started to you know this really took me a long time to really grasp 217 00:18:52,400 --> 00:18:57,600 what we're doing here what was this all about you know there's like you know you can't cross 218 00:18:57,600 --> 00:19:02,240 the sea by standing there and staying you gotta do something I started to realize that these 12 219 00:19:02,240 --> 00:19:08,400 steps were something that I needed I needed to practice them in my life every single day and it 220 00:19:08,400 --> 00:19:14,080 was a lot of work it was hard because most of what the principles of the 12 steps talk about 221 00:19:14,080 --> 00:19:19,520 goes against who I am who I am naturally you know I'll tell you a story about that about the steps 222 00:19:19,520 --> 00:19:25,760 because I identify with you know so well like what did you do you know the guys I sponsor always you 223 00:19:25,760 --> 00:19:32,480 know always always try to equate it to some action that can be taken you know and you know I'll tell 224 00:19:32,480 --> 00:19:40,160 you this story because it's I mean it's me and my mother was a remarkable she was a woman that 225 00:19:40,160 --> 00:19:46,800 really she had been wrong every dream she had she lost her youngest child she lost her husband 226 00:19:46,800 --> 00:19:53,120 she lost everything and here was her only son and she knew she was losing him and I didn't 227 00:19:53,120 --> 00:19:57,920 treat her very well when I was out there I didn't I wasn't in contact with her for months at a time 228 00:19:57,920 --> 00:20:04,000 she was dead I mean I just and she knew what the story was she wouldn't accept it but she 229 00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:11,280 she knows just like and it was a lot of years ago she didn't understand what was it anyway I got I 230 00:20:11,280 --> 00:20:18,080 got sober and I made amends to her but then I learned here that it wasn't enough to just make 231 00:20:18,080 --> 00:20:22,960 amends you know there's step six and seven two which talk about addressing my character defects 232 00:20:22,960 --> 00:20:28,400 there was no point making amends to her this was going to change who I was and so I tried to behave 233 00:20:28,400 --> 00:20:33,520 differently telling the truth I called her on a regular basis and on Mother's Day we went to see 234 00:20:33,520 --> 00:20:40,960 her on the holidays we spent together and slowly started to rebuild this relationship of love and 235 00:20:40,960 --> 00:20:48,800 trust and you know I met my wife and we started channeling and she ended up she was living down in 236 00:20:48,800 --> 00:20:52,800 we're in Calabasas and she was living in Orange County and she her husband moved up here to be 237 00:20:52,800 --> 00:20:59,440 closer to us and she participated with those kids lives it was the best part of her life that she 238 00:20:59,440 --> 00:21:05,280 had ever experienced it was like she was at that in that part of her life I was doing well I was 239 00:21:05,280 --> 00:21:10,640 happy and a wonderful wife and these three kids and she was volunteering at their school and I 240 00:21:10,640 --> 00:21:15,440 mean she life was just really really good and then one day she called me she said that they had found 241 00:21:15,440 --> 00:21:20,400 a spot kid and I remember we went down to the beach in Malibu and you know what do you say 242 00:21:20,400 --> 00:21:24,880 what do you say I said uh I said you know what's going to happen but I'm going to be with you every 243 00:21:24,880 --> 00:21:28,880 step of the way and I was I was with her every step of the way I went to doctors appointments 244 00:21:28,880 --> 00:21:35,120 with her I fought with insurance companies for the course hospitals to take her in and give her 245 00:21:35,120 --> 00:21:41,440 these treatments and she had some horrible just clinical trials that were just devastating 246 00:21:41,440 --> 00:21:47,760 physically and you know in the end she was losing it and I remember her last days she was living in 247 00:21:47,760 --> 00:21:54,480 Wesley village she knew she only had moments to live here at the end so one by one my family 248 00:21:54,480 --> 00:21:58,960 went in to say goodbye to her and my children went in they were little at the time they went in 249 00:21:58,960 --> 00:22:03,360 each alone if you ever made somebody rain it's a little scary they're scary these children were 250 00:22:03,360 --> 00:22:07,680 unfriend because they loved her they just saw right past and then you know my wife went in 251 00:22:07,680 --> 00:22:12,400 husband went in and I was the last person and I went in that room and she looked at me and she 252 00:22:12,400 --> 00:22:16,720 said I love you and I told her the same and I was holding her just spinning bonds and I laid 253 00:22:16,720 --> 00:22:22,080 her back and she lost consciousness and she lived for a few more days you know just with my sister 254 00:22:22,080 --> 00:22:26,240 and I slept on the floor just waiting for that moment and we were with her when she passed and 255 00:22:26,240 --> 00:22:32,800 it just so happened that when she died her minister and her husband my three children my wife were 256 00:22:32,800 --> 00:22:38,640 made home downstairs so moments after she died they all came upstairs we held hands around the bed 257 00:22:38,640 --> 00:22:42,960 my life has changed and so on let's work on the steps and our thoughts and obvious that's what 258 00:22:42,960 --> 00:22:48,320 I've got but it took it took effort it's not like hey look steps and see it took some it took effort 259 00:22:48,320 --> 00:22:54,640 to make up I started to build a life here it was just it was amazing really I've been able to 260 00:22:54,640 --> 00:22:59,840 succeed in ways that I had never been able to succeed in my life I'd always thought of myself 261 00:22:59,840 --> 00:23:04,720 as a loser and I realized that calling myself a loser is just another excuse so it was no excuse 262 00:23:04,720 --> 00:23:09,280 for going to take responsibility and uh and so these wonderful things started to happen 263 00:23:09,280 --> 00:23:14,800 my wife and I were building this life and but you know things happen right I mean life happens over 264 00:23:14,800 --> 00:23:19,200 time you know it's not you know I lost my mom my whole birth family has gone you know I've had 265 00:23:19,200 --> 00:23:23,600 times where I've just felt insecure I've had times where I've been afraid had times right that sense 266 00:23:23,600 --> 00:23:28,640 of impending doom and I don't even know why and uh and so things like that happen you know 2023 267 00:23:28,640 --> 00:23:34,160 was not a great year for me in January last year and the surgery on my show I'm a very active 268 00:23:34,160 --> 00:23:39,920 person so whenever I kind of have to go down it's it's hard for me I had surgery on my on my left 269 00:23:39,920 --> 00:23:45,760 shoulder and then in uh February my son is a professional baseball player his career came to 270 00:23:45,760 --> 00:23:53,200 just kind of abrupt and untimely and it's very challenging for me and then in March my uh my back 271 00:23:53,200 --> 00:23:58,480 had been causing me problems with my feet and lower legs started to get numb I was just really worried 272 00:23:58,480 --> 00:24:02,320 about that so I went to the doctor and they've been in our and I said yeah you know a serious 273 00:24:02,320 --> 00:24:06,720 condition we need to take care of that when we did the MRI and we noticed that I gave a kidney 274 00:24:06,720 --> 00:24:10,800 stone and so they said we're going to take care of that first they have two surgeries to have the 275 00:24:10,800 --> 00:24:16,160 kidney stone which was very unpleasant then the doctor said you know see your back we should do 276 00:24:16,160 --> 00:24:21,120 an MRI of your neck just to be sure well we've been in my neck and it was worse than my back they 277 00:24:21,120 --> 00:24:26,800 said that's more serious we need to do that so August 18th of last year I had a multi-level 278 00:24:26,800 --> 00:24:34,000 neck fusion surgery which is not fun not fun at all and then in December I had a back surgery in 279 00:24:34,000 --> 00:24:39,040 September and I got called into a meeting in my job a virtual meeting and I worked at a desk in 280 00:24:39,040 --> 00:24:44,080 my garage and I got called into a virtual meeting and they announced that the division I worked for 281 00:24:44,080 --> 00:24:49,920 they were shutting down they were eliminating my position and like that a 35-year career 282 00:24:49,920 --> 00:24:55,760 was over it was over with me sitting alone in my garage all the people that had worked for me 283 00:24:55,760 --> 00:25:02,080 managed over the years that I worked with sitting there alone in my garage in my car so there was no 284 00:25:02,080 --> 00:25:07,520 party there was no plaque there's no watch there was neither and I'll tell you what was strange 285 00:25:07,520 --> 00:25:13,280 about it though was last year I did have my mullets I had my mullets of stroke and I was 286 00:25:13,280 --> 00:25:18,240 physically uncomfortable but I was okay I was okay and I came to realize that the circumstances 287 00:25:18,240 --> 00:25:24,160 of my life weren't necessarily my well-being was not dependent on the circumstances it just wasn't 288 00:25:24,160 --> 00:25:29,040 I didn't realize that but I found that out last year and I bought my own dam I like my watch my 289 00:25:29,040 --> 00:25:34,960 watch understands me my watch will tell me you've had a stressful day it talks to me it does and it 290 00:25:34,960 --> 00:25:39,040 says it says my wife will say well you ever got chores to do around the house I'll be like yeah 291 00:25:39,040 --> 00:25:45,600 my watch says I need to rest a couple days ago it asked me it says have you ever considered not 292 00:25:45,600 --> 00:25:53,680 drinking alcohol anyway uh you know this is a new year and uh so a lot of this year's off to a much 293 00:25:53,680 --> 00:25:58,560 better start and I'll tell you what if you just looked at my life from a 40,000 foot view I mean 294 00:25:58,560 --> 00:26:03,280 here's what you would see I have a sponsor that I've had for a long time Bob Aro not star but he 295 00:26:03,280 --> 00:26:08,000 means a great member of Alcoholics Anonymous and I'm in regular contact with him and I love him and 296 00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:13,280 he loves me I sponsor a bunch of guys that uh you know when they hurt I do what I can to use their 297 00:26:13,280 --> 00:26:18,560 pay and uh when they have triumphs in their lives I get the chance to celebrate those with them too 298 00:26:18,560 --> 00:26:24,080 and it just adds a lot to my life and these three kids have grown up and uh you know my uh youngest 299 00:26:24,080 --> 00:26:28,720 daughter is a consultant she had an engineering degree from the University of Pittsburgh she lives 300 00:26:28,720 --> 00:26:35,360 in Chicago she's just doing great and uh my son is now uh retired from baseball and he and his wife 301 00:26:35,360 --> 00:26:41,920 live on uh most beach now so they're close by he's got his own business and they're happy and and 302 00:26:42,800 --> 00:26:49,520 building a good life and my oldest daughter Kristen uh lives in Burke Bank now my husband David and 303 00:26:49,520 --> 00:26:55,360 they have two children so I'm a grandfather Zeke who's a little over two years old and Lydia June 304 00:26:55,360 --> 00:26:59,600 he's three weeks old I spent the afternoon holding Lydia June my mother's name is Jim so it's kind of 305 00:26:59,600 --> 00:27:05,200 a special and my wife Nancy and I have been we have 36 wedding wedding anniversary at the beginning 306 00:27:05,200 --> 00:27:09,280 of this month and we just got a good thing of going you know all the kids are going we're 307 00:27:09,280 --> 00:27:16,000 empty nesters so we're dating again dating each other it's not like that we're having a lot of 308 00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:22,080 fun together you know I like to ride my mountain bike I enjoy that and play pickleball together 309 00:27:22,080 --> 00:27:26,080 hike and do all the stuff we've been traveling we've been to a lot of really cool places we've 310 00:27:26,080 --> 00:27:32,480 been to Bhutan and uh we went to Africa last year and some just amazing experiences in Africa and 311 00:27:33,120 --> 00:27:39,440 this uh this august we're going to go to Peru we're going to go find this El Canton a truck uh which is a truck 312 00:27:39,440 --> 00:27:44,880 you have to go over it's a 15 000 foot calisthenica like oh it's really going to it's quite a track 313 00:27:44,880 --> 00:27:49,920 it's just like she's got to be married to me you can't we can't just take the bus and the train 314 00:27:49,920 --> 00:27:55,680 and uh and then I found out that so can't they actually means savage and not savage in the way 315 00:27:55,680 --> 00:28:01,120 they use it today it's like hey dude that was savage I mean like like the real savage you know 316 00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:07,120 she knows that yeah it's really going to be something I think it's going to be dope 317 00:28:07,120 --> 00:28:13,440 it's going to be something and we just have a really really good life together yeah you know 318 00:28:13,440 --> 00:28:18,080 now I just you know if you look at my life I mean what what I'm trying to do is I'm just trying to 319 00:28:18,080 --> 00:28:24,480 live a life that's just undisturbed trying to spend so much of my life chasing after things that make 320 00:28:24,480 --> 00:28:29,360 me feel feel good you know and now I'm trying to do things in my life I feel good about because 321 00:28:29,360 --> 00:28:34,240 things that you just feel good make you feel good it's fine but once they're over they're over the 322 00:28:34,240 --> 00:28:38,720 things that you feel good about well that's more permanent that's something that can stick with you 323 00:28:38,720 --> 00:28:43,760 that allows you to build you know really a meaningful life and a life that you know 324 00:28:43,760 --> 00:28:48,400 I'm trying to trying to you know struggle with this idea of humility and alcoholics and on you 325 00:28:48,400 --> 00:28:52,960 see these 12 steps are all based on the concept of humility it's a time for me it's a difficult 326 00:28:52,960 --> 00:28:57,600 thing it's hard to even define I've come to the conclusion that humility just means that uh that 327 00:28:57,600 --> 00:29:02,560 I'm willing to give without it being transaction willing to give expecting nothing in return and 328 00:29:02,560 --> 00:29:08,240 it's a hard thing to do it's a for me it's a hard thing to do I don't know if I have the true 329 00:29:08,240 --> 00:29:14,080 strength of character that humility requires I don't know that uh let me find out I'm gonna do 330 00:29:14,080 --> 00:29:18,240 the best I can of course you know talking about humility is you know it's kind of a hard thing 331 00:29:18,240 --> 00:29:23,200 to talk about because as soon as you start talking about it you're not but uh anyway I um I'm really 332 00:29:23,200 --> 00:29:29,040 grateful for alcoholics and I'm grateful to have developed some kind of of sense of a spiritual 333 00:29:29,040 --> 00:29:35,040 program here you know and I found that really uh because I didn't you know I came here with such a 334 00:29:35,040 --> 00:29:40,480 selfish and distant heart and I didn't understand that concept of loving one another I kind of got 335 00:29:40,480 --> 00:29:44,320 it with loving my wife and children but I didn't understand it and alcoholics and I was like what 336 00:29:44,320 --> 00:29:49,200 do we talk about when we love and then you know I realized that um those people who set up this 337 00:29:49,200 --> 00:29:54,800 meeting and the people who are sponsoring others and uh you know they're helping one another uh 338 00:29:54,800 --> 00:29:59,840 what we do in alcoholics anonymous for each other that's love that's love that's how we love each 339 00:29:59,840 --> 00:30:05,280 other in alcoholics anonymous and almost every religion that you'll know of equates love with 340 00:30:05,280 --> 00:30:10,480 God you know I remember there we were I was at a funeral I talked to the priest afterwards and he 341 00:30:10,480 --> 00:30:15,200 said you know to love and others to see the face of God and I believe that to be true and so that's 342 00:30:15,200 --> 00:30:20,560 where I found this spiritual connection and to me it's real it's substantive I can feel when I feel 343 00:30:20,560 --> 00:30:24,400 that love I could feel it physically it connects with me and that's where I know I've had a 344 00:30:24,400 --> 00:30:29,040 conscious contact with God so uh if you're new I think there was a new person online maybe I don't 345 00:30:29,040 --> 00:30:34,560 know if there's anyone here in the room that was is but um to me what I found here at alcoholics 346 00:30:34,560 --> 00:30:39,440 anonymous through these 12 steps is a meaningful luck is a meaningful luck and if you're new all 347 00:30:39,440 --> 00:30:45,760 I could tell you is if you just try to do this program very best you can just give it your all 348 00:30:45,760 --> 00:30:52,160 as our chapter 5 says rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path thank you