As one does, I often spend my Sunday nights watching Game of Thrones. If you’re not familiar with the series, I’ll try to summarize it in a sentence: it’s a medieval political drama set in a fantasy world that includes underappreciated giant wolves, dragons, magic, zombies, shape-shifting ninja assassins, pirates, nonsensical plot lines, often terrible […]
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Learning the Hard Way
When I was a kid, my teeth were pretty messed up, and my parents were aware. At the time I wasn’t particularly concerned, but my mother knew that without some corrective measures, high school was probably going to be a little rough. So she did what concerned parents do when their children’s teeth are pointing […]
On Resentments (or Why I Hate Tom Brady)
I’m going to break the cardinal rule of (semi) professional writing by invoking something you’ll see in high school essays year-round, because it hasn’t always been exactly clear to me what a resentment is. Ready? As defined, a resentment is “… a mixture of disappointment, anger and fear. It comprises the three basic emotions of […]
Big Ideas, Little Green Men
It’s common to have issues with the notion of a higher power. That can be difficult because it’s integral to most recovery programs. I’ve had issues with this myself; though I was exposed to several (probably too many) religions when I was younger, I’m definitely not a religious person. I simply wasn’t used to having […]
Became Willing
I had a pretty messed up upbringing. My family life as a child was filled with mental, verbal and physical abuse. My parents were divorced before I can even remember. My dad was present but absent at the same time. I went to three different elementary schools because we were constantly on the run from […]
Espionage, Intrigue, and AA
I was kidnapped once. Perhaps “abducted” would be a better word, I was in my twenties. I was in Jamaica with my then-wife, and the airline had lost our luggage, so we ventured out of the hotel into a local market. Two large men with a car convinced my ex that they were, in fact, […]
The Unfounded Fear of Face to Face
There’s absolutely no way I’m going to tell you that online meetings and communities for support, discussion and enhancement of a recovery program aren’t an incredible resource. I’m thankful daily that this resource exists, and if participation is any factor in determining this site’s popularity, so are many other people. Online communities like this one […]
Depression, Industrialists, Drinking and You
It seems like you’re hearing about depression a lot more now than ever before. Life, in general, creates more stress these days than at any point in the past; ours is the first generation who will not reach or exceed our parents’ success; a full-time job no longer promises you the ability to pay for […]
We Could Be Heroes
I’ve decided to upgrade; the title from this one is a Bowie lyric rather than Britney Spears. I hope you appreciate that. Most of the time when I’m writing these entries, I’m trying to illustrate my personal opinion on a certain aspect of sobriety, maybe trying to explain something that I feel I understand fairly […]
Sobriety as a Social Construct
One of the questions I see the most from people who have recently decided to try sobriety is the vague, but pertinent, “what do I do now?” It’s a good question, because if we really examine the reasons we were drinking to begin with, we’re now forced to address the issues drinking appeared to resolve […]