for all of the opportunities available to me as a 55 year-old man in recovery with a lot of time on his hands
for 4 intense days of recovery, from the morning of Thanksgiving to Sunday evening
for the wonderful AA speakers I got to hear over the past few days, including Don N. (Hollywood), Theresa F. (Los Angeles), Artis G. (Tulsa) -- there were more and they were all good to listen to, but these were my personal favorites
that my sponsor will co-chair the 2010 Houston Roundup
If I have seen farther than other men it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. - Isaac Newton
The Edsel was the original Yugo. It was the colossal failure to which all future failures would be compared.
But the car wasn’t just a lemon. It was also a catastrophe of marketing. “Despite several features that were not necessarily innovations — a vertical grille, self-adjusting brakes, Teletouch transmission buttons on the steering wheel and a floating speedometer that glowed when a preset speed was reached — the Edsel was panned by the public,” wrote Dave Kinney in The New York Times two years ago.
“Among other things, it was derided for having a grille that looked like a toilet seat. Time magazine popularized the wisecrack that it looked like an Oldsmobile sucking a lemon.” That distinguishing feature was more affectionately known as the horse collar grille.
The Edsel was introduced on Sept. 4, 1957, or E-Day. Based on the standard Ford body, the Edsel was a big car that could seat six people in comfort and guzzle gas with similar ease. The Edsel was styled to portray more of an upscale look. “They’ll know you’ve arrived when you drive up in a 1958 Edsel,” declared the narrator in the first Edsel television commercial. Yes, there was truth to that advertising.
Ford originally intended to create a standalone Edsel division with 1,300 independent dealers, and the company promoted the car with a television special, “The Edsel Show,” hosted by Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra.
The problem, according to historians, was that the United States was entering a recession, and the public’s appetite for conspicuous luxury was on the wane. The Edsel was a failure from the start, and Ford knew it. After the first year, the automaker drastically reduced its marketing budget for the car. By 1959, the Edsel was on its last legs. Ford made fewer than 3,000 1960 models, including about 70 convertibles, before the final Edsel came off the assembly line in November.
that I'm a little pressed for time this morning; so many meetings to be at. Love it!
that I co-chair a Step 1 workshop this morning.
that I had the honor of co-chairing Lambda Center's largest AA meeting of the year yesterday at 12:15pm. It was, of course, all about gratitude. And there were about 200 people in attendance.
What a lovely surprise to finally discover how unlonely being alone can be. - Ellen Burstyn
You may never have heard the full rendition of Il Silenzioa, otherwise known as "Taps". This is a beautiful rendition. The girl's name is Melissa Venema and is playing with maestro Andre Rieu from Masstricht in the Netherlands . Don't know her age -- looks like early teens, but says she has been performing for years. At this performance in 2008, city officials sealed off the town square and closed everything down so they get perfect noise control!
todAAy i AAm grAAteful & thAAnkful
from a story we read yesterday -- "WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY"
... "I realize how true it is that one of the primary differences between alcoholics and nonalcoholics is that nonalcoholics change their behavior to meet their goals and alcoholics change their goals to meet their behavior." I pretty much had no goals other than to party. I did enough to keep my job(s), but not a lot more.
... "One definition of a bottom is the point when the last thing you lost or the next thing you are about to lose is more important to you than booze. That point is different for everyone, and some of us die before we get there." First I lost my partner and then I lost my mind. My soul was just about gone too.
that I no longer have any DNA in my system (Drugs, Narcotics and Alcohol)
that I use Tradition 12 as a guideline to a lot of my behavior
that I got lots of little things accomplished yesterday
Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy. - Anne Frank
that I attended a very spiritual (IMHO) AA birthday night @ Lambda Center. Here we celebrate annual milestones once monthly as a Center. Lambda is host to about 40 AA meetings each week. This month, my friend Scott W (Attitude of Gratitude) celebrated his sixth year of continuous sobriety. I paid him handsomely to give yours truly a big shout-out during his short acceptance talk. NOT!!
that I had the honor and privilege to listen to a sponsee's 5th Step over the weekend. It never ceases to amaze me what a moving experience this can be.
that I am on the Houston Roundup Committee and had the privilege to preview the annual play that will be performed next weekend in front of about 300 recovery peeps.
that I was asked to help a friend through the AA steps; this will be good for both of us
for a reminder from Mary Christineof how much I always felt at home whenever and wherever I walked into a bar. And I've been in thousands of them.
that I've studied the AA traditions with my sponsor and in meetings as well. Knowledge of how the traditions came to be what they are today is pretty good AA history, for those who are interested. This is for sure though; without those traditions in place, Alcoholics Anonymous would not exist. We would have imploded decades ago.
that I still take interest in Lambda Center fundraising and service work in general
Experience is not what happens to a man. It is what a man does with what happens to him. - Aldous Huxley
that I had the pleasure of attending 2 very powerful AA meetings yesterday AND a very good Al-Anon meeting as well
that I belong
that Scott W stayed sober another day
that we read Acceptance Was the Answer (a story from page 407 of the 4th edition of the Big Book) in the 6:30am AA meeting. Here are a few excerpts ...
... "If you had my responsibilities, if you needed the sleep like I do, you'd drink too." ... "The pep pills affected my hearing at times: I couldn't listen fast enough to hear what I was saying." ... "In the hospital, I hung on to the idea I'd had most of my life: that if I could just control the external environment, the internal environment would then become comfortable." ... "To this day, I am amazed at how many of my problems -- most of which had nothing to do with drinking, I believed -- have become manageable or have simply disappeared since I quit drinking." ... "And acceptance is the answer to all my problems today. When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing, or situation -- some fact of my life -- unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing, or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment."
OK. I'll stop here.
Self-discipline is when your conscience tells you to do something and you don't talk back. - W.K. Hope
Today, my friend SCOTT W celebrates his sixth consecutive year of remaining sober. But Scott's not just sober, he's well into his recovery from alcohol and the thinking that goes with drinking way too much. Drop by and say howdy to SCOTT W, (click here) whose picture I have modified to protect his innocence anonymity.
todAAy i AAm grAAteful & thAAnkful
for those I've gotten to know in sobriety who are still there; I realize that the longer I stay sober, the fewer will be around who were here when I got here
that I try to pace myself through life rather than run as fast as I can (usually)
that I've always lived by the mantra that I'd rather work smart than hard (this works for me, but not for others, apparently)
that we read the story on page 407 of the 4th edition of the Big Book yesterday -- I'll wait until tomorrow to comment on the good stuff
Nothing makes you like other human beings so much as doing things for them. - Zora Neale Hurston
for reminders how just the littlest thing can make a difference to someone; this may be something I share in a meeting or just a greeting at the door to an AA meeting. The moral to this story is that I just need to continue to be the best I can be -- at all times.
that Step Twelve reminds me to practice these principle in ALL my affairs
that I will substitute-chair an AA meeting this morning -- as a group, we will read, then discuss several pages of the Big Book
that I don't know what may happen today, but I'm pretty sure what won't happen.
Apparently there is nothing that cannot happen today. - Mark Twain
that early on in my life of AA meetings, I heard that God made the Earth round so that we wouldn't know what's around the corner. This statement helped me get over the hump I had been facing in accepting a Higher Power. Not long after I heard this, I was able to surrender my drinking life over to my new concept of a HP. If you know someone who is having trouble with Step 2, you might want to mention it to them.
for another peaceful, serene weekend
that a friend I made 6 years ago when I first began going to AA meetings has returned. I had not seen him since I was about 4 months sober. Today, he has 6 days clean and sober and I hope he's ready to do whatever it takes. Somehow though, I have my doubts. We've had a couple of long talks over the weekend about getting sober -- and staying sober!!
Faith and doubt both are needed, not as antagonists, but working side by side to take us around the unknown curve. - Lillian Smith
for the not-so-hidden messages in Step 7 of Alcoholics Anonymous -- "Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings."
... we now clearly see that we have been making unreasonable demands upon ourselves, upon others, and upon God.
... the chief activator of our defects has been self-centered fear -- primarily fear that we would lose something we already possessed or would fail to get something we demanded.
... Living upon a basis of unsatisfied demands, we were in a state of continual disturbance and frustration.
It tells us that we need to try humility in seeking the removal of our other shortcomings. If I can find the same degree of humility that enabled me to find the grace by which such a deadly obsession (my drinking) could be banished, then there must be hope of the same result respecting any other problem I (we) could possibly have.
What an order! But I can go through with it.
Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish. - John Quincy Adams
that things are going so smoothly in my life right now, there's not much to spur my gratitude over an individual event or situation. I'm just working on some of my less damaging character defects, trying not to practice them over and over and over. Mixed results.
I continue to work my program as I've done the past few years. Why change it if it's working?
However, I know the importance of improving my conscious contact with my HP, so that never stops or remains dormant.
On another note ... I want to offer my gratitude to all veterans of the U.S. military forces. Without them, we would not be free to do the things we do.
Maturity is the ability to do a job whether or not you are supervised, to carry money without spending it, and to bear an injustice without wanting to get even. - Ann Landers
that I'm not what I was, but I can be better than I am now
that I have no power over the way my HP makes things happen but I do have control over how I react to those things
that I chose to react differently yesterday to a situation that once would have caused me to explode in a public tantrum; yesterday, I just walked away from a volatile situation
for my sponsees; they keep me grounded when I feel like flying
To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness. - Bertrand Russell
for Step 11 improvement -- when I look at where I was 6 years ago when I stopped drinking, I am amazed at the evolution of my own spirituality. I also know that this must continue, and it will as long as I keep doing what I'm doing.
for Fi. She's a most lovely woman from Dublin who occasionally visits Houston and comes to AA meetings at Lambda while here. She shared her experience yesterday with us before headin gfo rthe airport and then back home to Ireland. I hope that she and my significant other can connect later this month while he is in Dublin.
that I saw a PBS salute to Bill Cosby, winner of the Mark Twain Prize. It included performances by well-known comics and musicians. Great stuff! I first knew of Bill cosby back in 1966 when he was just getting started. I think I had his first album. I would have been about 12 years old.
that I know from my own recent experience that Pam will come through her current situation just fine; it just takes time
that another baseball season is done; I'm not a Yankees fan
Great Spirit, help me never to judge another until I have walked in his moccasins. - Sioux Indian prayer
that yesterday we had a meeting about some of the paradoxes we hear in AA meetings; ie: you have to give it away to keep it. Do you have one? Let me know in the comment section.
for Rule 62 (if you dont' know what that is, look it up or ask your sponsor; if your sponsor doesn't know what it is, get a new sponsor)
to see all the great costumes at Lambda Center on Halloween
for perfect weather during the weekend
We cannot hold a torch to light another person’s path without brightening our own. - Ben Sweetland
1) there was a 4 or 5 minute report on the High School gang rape in Richmond, California that happened during Prom Night last weekend. (up to 10 young men raped a girl while many more watched and some even took pictures). ABC interviewed the superintendent of the school district and he talked about the need to review the security procedures. NOT ONCE was there any mention of the parents of any of those kids or of their responsibility. I think I see where some of the problem lies.
2) The next report on GMA on ABC was about the return of Brett Farve to the NFL after coming back from his multiple retirements. They talked about how he had "the audacity" to beat his old team, the Green Bay Packers. At no time was there any consideration whatsoever that his current team, the Minnesota Vikings, has other team members that may have taken part in that win over Green Bay. ABC seems to think Mr Farve is completely responsible for the wins of his team. Bullshit!!!!!
This is from page 29 of Courage to Change. I really identify with it and it's been a good aid in my recovery.
"Sometimes the only way I can determine whether I'm trying to control someone else or whether I'm simply expressing my feelings is by noticing how many times I say the same thing. If I mention something that is on my mind and then let it go no matter what the response I get, I am speaking sincerely. If I repeatedly make similar suggestions or ask prodding questions again and again, I am probably trying to control. If I am satisfied only when the other person responds in a way I consider desirable -- agrees with what I've said or takes my advice --- then I know I've lost my focus."
Gosh. Recovery ain't easy. I hope your Halloween was good. And safe.
