10 of 180 QUOTES by the Famous, Infamous & Anonymous in ALL DRINKING ASIDE (Chapters 11 - 20, Part Two of Nine)

 from Chapter Eleven: Birth, Insanity, Recovery or Death

"Strange as it seems, no amount of learning can cure stupidity, and higher education positively fortifies it." - Stephen Vizinczey

*****

30 Years of STREET KNOWLEDGE could neither Replace nor Erase my ACADEMIA, but STREETSMARTS have Bolstered my RECOVERY and are in my TOOLBOX.

*****

Stephen Vizinczey's Quote opens Chapter Eleven (Birth, Insanity, Recovery or Death) of All Drinking Aside.

My response to it today, several years after publication, is patently absurd (Your Choice):

GOT MILK? (or) GOT RECOVERY?

All kidding aside, learn more here:

ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal  

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO 

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

All Drinking Aside bookends each of its 90 Chapters with Quotes by the Famous, Infamous & Anonymous.

This is one of them:

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes." Marcel Proust

*****

Under the Influence of ALCOHOL in Addiction or Under the Influence of REALISTIC POSSIBILITIES in Recovery

*****

"Having new eyes," as referenced here by this Quote by Marcel Proust, is much about being Clean & Sober to me, not Red-Eyed & Addicted. This Quote finishes out Chapter Eleven (Birth, Insanity, Recovery or Death.) of All Drinking Aside. Great Expectations (different Author, lol) were left at the door when I first got sober. All I wanted was to NOT Drink and to NOT Die.

In Recovery Meetings, in response to the Question, "What do I have to Change?" the answer is often "Everything," a new landscape AND new eyes.

All kidding aside, read more here:

ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal  

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO 

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

All Drinking Aside bookends each of its 90 Chapters with Quotes by the Famous, Infamous & Anonymous.

This is one of them:

from Chapter Twelve: Click Me Sober, Click Me Drunk

"Worry is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you anywhere." - Anonymous

*****

This STRESS-RELIEVER opens Chapter Twelve (Click Me Sober, Click Me Drunk) of All Drinking Aside. Use SPARINGLY or as you see fit (I use it LIBERALLY!).

*****

All kidding aside, read more here:

ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal  

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO 

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

All Drinking Aside bookends each of its 90 Chapters with Quotes by the Famous, Infamous & Anonymous.

This is one of them:

"Nothing is more difficult than competing with a myth." - Francoise Giroud

*****

This Francoise Giroud Quote closes Chapter Twelve (Click Me Sober, Click Me Drunk) of All Drinking Aside. Conundrum, Riddle or Myth, Nothing Itself is a Mystery to me.

*****

All kidding aside, read more here:

ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal  

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO 

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

All Drinking Aside bookends each of its 90 Chapters with Quotes by the Famous, Infamous & Anonymous.

This is one of them:

from Chapter Thirteen: The Hallucinated Self

"The worst loneliness is to not be comfortable with yourself." - Mark Twain

*****

"The Hallucinated Self," Chapter 13 of All Drinking Aside, opens with this Mark Twain Quote (pictured). 

An ill-fitting garment, my selfhood was numbed and stifled by addiction, but has been blossoming in recovery ever since. A long way home after 30 years of one more for the road.

*****

Immerse yourself in my descent into addiction and eventual recovery. Emerge more fully whole.

ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal  

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO 

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

All Drinking Aside bookends each of its 90 Chapters with Quotes by the Famous, Infamous & Anonymous.

This is one of them:

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

from Chapter Fourteen: The Unseen Bar Scene Seen

"A man who suffers before it is necessary suffers more than is necessary." - Seneca

"Opportunity may knock only once, but temptation leans on the doorbell." - Anonymous

10 of 180 QUOTES by the Famous, Infamous & Anonymous in ALL DRINKING ASIDE (Chapters 1 - 10, Part One of Nine)

from Chapter One: Alcohol is Power (04/10/21) 

"I envy people who drink - at least they know what to blame everything on." - Oscar Levant

*****

This is the First of 180 Quotes by the Famous, Infamous and Anonymous in ALL DRINKING ASIDE

*****

Each of the 90 Chapters begins and ends with a Quote.

Look forward each day to read another Quote here. 

Enjoy this Autobiographical Fiction in its entirety. 

ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal  

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO 

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

"Because you are alive, everything is possible." - Thich Nhat Hanh

*****

This Quote by Thich Nhat Hahn is the 2nd of 180 Quotes by the Famous, Infamous and Anonymous in ALL DRINKING ASIDE. It bookends Chapter One: Alcohol is Power. (04/10/21) 

*****

Each of the 90 Chapters begins and ends with a Quote.

Look forward each day to read another Quote here. 

Enjoy this Autobiographical Fiction in its entirety. 

ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal  

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO 

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

*****

from Chapter Two: Psycho Analysis

 "And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music." - Frederick Nietzsche

*****

The PERPETUAL & SYSTEMATIC seeking of OBLIVION, years in its formation, Does Not a WHIRLING DERVISH Make. 

*****

This is the Introductory Quote to Chapter Two of ALL DRINKING ASIDE. It is one of 180 Quotes by the Famous, Infamous and Anonymous in my book. A Two-Word Title, Chapter Two is appropriately named PSYCHO ANALYSIS.

Each of the 90 Chapters begins and ends with a Quote.

Look forward each day to read another Quote here. 

Enjoy this Autobiographical Fiction in its entirety. 

ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal  

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO 

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

*****

from Chapter Three: Color Me Empty

"People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar." - Thich Nhat Hanh

*****

PANIC ATTACKS & AN AUDITORY HALLUCINATION. Drinking took me here and still I could not let go. For 30 years, the Drinking Life was the only like I knew. Eventually, even Relapse felt familiar.

*****

This Thich Nhat Hanh Quote opens Chapter Three: Color Me Empty

Each of the 90 Chapters begins and ends with a Quote.

Look forward each day to read another Quote here. 

Enjoy this Autobiographical Fiction in its entirety. 

ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal  

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO 

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

"I believe in looking reality straight in the eye and denying it." - Garrison Keillor

*****

My relationship with Denial went from Straight in the Eye to Side-Eye to Blind Eye. Ego and Memory close out Chapter Three of All Drinking Aside. Was either "Shallow, hollow, yellow, dying, dead"? 

*****

Let each reader ask themselves that Question as they read it in context. 

This Garrison Keillor Quote closes out Chapter Three: Color Me Empty

Each of the 90 Chapters begins and ends with a Quote by the Famous, Infamous and Anonymous.

Look forward each day to read another of the 180 Quotes here. 

Enjoy this Autobiographical Fiction in its entirety. 

ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal  

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO 

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

*****

Chapter Four: Disease Management [Quotes omitted here]

*****

from Chapter Five: Maintenance Drinking

"The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken." - Samuel Johnson

*****

"By the time I had a REASON to Stop Drinking, REASON No Longer Had ANYTHING to Do With It" is how I explain it later in my book. 

*****

This Samuel Johnson Quote closes out Chapter Five (Maintenance Drinking) of ALL DRINKING ASIDE. 

Each of the 90 Chapters begin and end with a Quote by the Famous, Infamous and Anonymous.

Look forward each day to read another of the 180 Quotes here. 

Enjoy this Autobiographical Fiction in its entirety. 

ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal  

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO 

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

*****

from Chapter Six: This Disconnect

"If I try to be like him, who will be like me?" - Yiddish proverb

*****

From the IRRESISTABLY SIMPLE to the IRREDUCIBLY COMPLEX, the 180 Quotes in All Drinking Aside take you through the Roller-Coaster of Addiction & Recovery.

*****

This Yiddish proverb gives you two slices of pie and opens Chapter Six (This Disconnect) of All Drinking Aside. 

Unmistakably confused when I hit bottom, I was left with nothing but debris and doubt.

*****

from Chapter Seven: The Bottleneck

"The deepest definition of youth is life as yet untouched by tragedy." - Alfred North Whitehead

*****

An ELEPHANT knows more about DEATH & SUFFERING than I did as a Child.

*****

I would learn of Tragedy in my Addiction & Recovery. This Alfred North Whitehead Quote opens ALL DRINKING ASIDE's Seventh Chapter, The Bottleneck.

*****

from Chapter Eight: An Alcoholic Is.

"We learn as much from sorrow as from joy, as much from illness as from health, from handicap as from advantage - and indeed perhaps more." - Pearl S. Buck

*****

Recovery has an almost TWILIGHT ZONE effect, IF YOU LIVE TO RECOVER.

The Depth of Gratitude for Those Who Maintain Recovery in Unequalled. GRATITUDE.

*****

This Pearl S. Buck Quote opens Chapter Eight (An Alcoholic Is.) of All Drinking Aside.

"Nothing happens unless first we dream." - Carl Sandberg

*****

"You can have Drunk Dreams Sober, but you can't have Sober Dreams Drunk."

This I wrote in my Recovery (After Addiction Smothered Other Dreams).

*****

Carl Sandberg closes out Chapter Eight (An Alcoholic Is.) of All Drinking Aside.

*****

Chapters Nine and Ten [Quotes omitted here]

*****

I hope you enjoy ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal  

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO 

The PRISM of EMPOWERMENT or The PRISON of ADDICTION

 

(Zazzle on Pinterest)

The Idea of Progress is Passed on from One Generation to the Next. 

I was that Next Generation to Mac (pictured here), who I'll loosely call my A.A. Sponsor, but who, more importantly, is the man who inspired me to chance taking my next step forward. Sadly, Mac is deceased. I am one of the many to whom Mac gave the Mantle of Responsibility to Pass on the Idea of Infinite Possibilities to those who would follow him. Then, from me to you and from you to whomever is your Next Generation. 

*****

Wear your Recovery like a Loose-Fitting Garment. It will require Modifications and Adjustments with the Passage of Time.

Learn the Give and Take of Human Connection. It's about all I have and all I can offer you.

After multiple relapses, it became clear to me: The Prism of EMPOWERMENT or the Prison of ADDICTION. If the choice were easy, there'd be no need for Recovery Books, Recovery Meetings, On-line Groups and the Whole Shebang of Recovery Options. 

Choose wisely. Choose many.

*****

Mac was my Prism. He Empowered me. No Greater Gift have I Ever Received. Almost by Definition, it is my Responsibility to Give Back.

Thank You, Mac, for All That You Have Freely Given Me (Capital M for me, here, for in Recovery, We Learn to be Bigger Than Ourselves).

Prism accepted. 

Mantle worn loosely.

Gratitude unending.

*****

That's all I have and that is enough Just For Today.

****************************************

I hope you enjoy ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal  

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO 

Find 6,100+ Recovery Tweets here: twitter.com/jimanders4 

WHAT DO Punxsutawney Phil & ALL DRINKING ASIDE Have in Common?

 

Punxsutawney Phil is at the Center of the Groundhog Day Celebrations in Punxsutawney, Pa. every year. "The event is based upon a communal light-hearted Suspension of Disbelief. It is organized by the 'Inner Circle'- recognizable from their top hats and tuxedos- who ostensibly communicate with Phil to receive his prognostication. This Suspension of Disbelief extends to the assertion that the same groundhog has been making predictions since the nineteenth century." - [Wikipedia] 

Jim Anders is the Central Character of the Autobiographical Fiction ALL DRINKING ASIDE. It, too, is organized around the Suspension of Disbelief. The Author describes his descent into Alcoholism while three Fictional Alter Egos (unnoticed by him) discuss his prospects for Recovery. Suspension of Disbelief is the Glue by which your eyes will be Affixed to its Pages as the Story Progresses.

SUSPEND YOUR DISBELIEF!

Become Transfixed by ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal  

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO 

Find 6,000+ Recovery Tweets here: twitter.com/jimanders4 

"A Toxic Cocktail of Emotions Enflamed by Alcohol, Narcotics & Prescription Drugs"

 

Denial, anger, fear, depression, self-pity, doubt: a toxic cocktail of emotions enflamed by alcohol, narcotics and prescription drugs. In this 90-piece orchestration of autobiographical flashbacks, the author describes his descent into alcoholism while three fictional flies-on-the-wall (unnoticed by him) discuss his prospects for recovery. This intense, introspective and illuminating fiction looks at alcoholism and addiction from the inside out and back again. The vicious cycles of alcoholic addiction: hospitals, detoxes, rehabs and relapse. Repeat, repeat, repeat. A textbook case of chronic chemical dependency. ALL DRINKING ASIDE will provoke, deceive, disturb and annoy you while it entertains and informs/ ALL DRINKING ASIDE IS "Everybody's Autobiography," if you're an alcoholic and "Someone You Know," if you are not. 

**********

ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal  

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO 

Find 6,000+ Recovery Tweets here: twitter.com/jimanders4 

The Daisy Chain of Recovery

One Alcoholic Helping Another. One Addict Helping Another. This is the Daisy Chain of Recovery. One Day at a Time. One Moment at a Time. One Life at a Time. One Day, Two Months or Thirty Years Clean and Sober. All Are the Same. All Benefit from Each. One Flower Equals All Flowers.

This is Not the Chains of Addiction. The Chains of Addiction are Treacherous, Slavery to a Substance. This is HOPE: Our Most Renewable Natural Resource. This is Living. This is Doable. This is Irreplaceable.

"Nothing Matters More than that We Remain Sober because when We Remain Sober Everything Matters More."

Addiction Disconnects. Recovery Connects, Reconnects. Recovery is Expansive. Addiction is Restraints. 

This is the Daisy Chain of Recovery. Everybody's Recovering from Something, so the Daisy Chain refers to Each and All.

It's Child's Play once we work ourselves beyond the Insanity of the Chains of Addiction. This is the Daisy Chain of Recovery. 

Pass it on! Pass It On!! PASS IT ON!!!

*****

Passages in quotes are excerpted from ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal  

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO 

Find 6,000+ Recovery Tweets here: twitter.com/jimanders4 

"There Is No Safe Harbor When The Sea Is Alcohol"​

The Search for a Realistic Hope

There is a certain fleeting sadness within my recovery at times. 

When I reflect back on the way it was, it seems that it was all a necessary evil before I could find a lasting sober shore. I could not be in this here and now had I not gone through all that I went through then. Discarding hypotheticals, I'm left with the hope that changes will occur in our culture so that in the future our youth will not transition from adolescence to adulthood in a 30-Spectacle, lost in addiction as I had been. 

I live in hopes that a better way evolves for others far younger than I as they search for a fitting meaning to their lives.

Education is likely an effective preventative tool. Not a "Just Say No" with no realistic plans to deal with the experimentation with alcohol and drugs that is almost inevitable for many future fiery youths. May the world around them enable positive progress not stymied by the stigmas, prejudices and hatreds that surround us today. One day soon, the likelihood of more effective educational tools may be developed and acceptance by the non-addicted world may soon grow. A smoother path cleared for seeking help with constructive rehabilitation and recovery, easier and more widely accessible is surely possible. 

False hope, perhaps, but every step taken in a better direction cannot fail to produce better outcomes. Addiction does not have to be a part of growing up now, does it? Education and better preventions and treatments can replace crime and punishment.

Crime and punishment are not necessary evils. Change is possible. And a realistic hope becomes possible when there is a groundswell of actions. Actions create hope. Actions make hope a reality. Hope alone may be just another elusive pipedream. 

I'm not here to prescribe behaviors or to provide blanket solutions. All I seem able to do is to present the feel of it, the real of it, from my perspective, with the hope that it may help others to untangle their lives, to fall more gently and recover more smoothly than my particular experiences have allowed me to.

Here, Surimi describes my progress to his fictional friends (unnoticed by me), at this one uncertain juncture....

*****

"Water lifts all boats, but apparently not the same can be said for alcohol. There is no safe harbor when the sea is alcohol. His extremes, his drunken fire and ice. Sobriety, and all that comes with it, is more balanced, more centered and less extreme than his active addiction was. His cadence and his rhythm are more clearly a reflection of his life. Addiction is chaos. Sobriety will eventually have a calming effect on almost anyone." 

Of course, I heard none of this as I droned on with my story.... "I drank myself sober sometimes. My mind would seek to find some equilibrium. Despite my drunkenness, my mind stood at cross-purposes with my substance of abuse. I couldn't have known that then, or at least, I didn't know that. Did not know that. In the most strange of strangest ways, I finally drank myself sober."

On a daily basis, I drank to return myself to what had become my level of addiction, drank to feel normal and for brief moments, drinking sometimes made me feel sober. Drinking filled the lack of alcohol, its absence painful to me. I sometimes drank beer in the shower from a sippy cup in an effort to feel sober, feel less pain from alcohol's absence.

All of this was a sort of fine-tuning of the thermostat in my alcoholic house of horrors. I found myself drinking myself sober and drinking myself drunk, often just one drink away from whatever insane alcoholic thermostat my derangement was set at in the moment.

Living this way, as you can imagine, was unsustainable. The fabric of my life was tearing apart and soon, no more jumps on this alcoholic trampoline could last. I fell through, again and again. Essentially, I was dead, but somehow, by a single thread, survived. 

True, "there is no safe harbor when the sea is alcohol" and I was lucky to survive, but as I said at the beginning here, I felt a fleeting sadness about the whole thing deep inside of me. Life can be insufferable at times and addiction is a form of needless suffering. I was one of the lucky ones for whom life found a way to flourish beyond the attendant obstacles of my addictions. 

And so (denouement), save whatever little time and strength you may have left to find your sober shore and if you're not yet there, find shared courage in a sober friend or group of friends to help guide your ship ashore. Life can be so good and addiction is not an answer for anyone. My life of drunken fire and ice has ended and I have reached the sober shore. My recovery is on dry land and I have much more living to do.

Connection. Balance. Peace.

Everybody's recovering from something.

Life is good.

Strive on! 

*****

"Nothing matters more than that we remain sober because when we remain sober everything matters more.

*****

Passages in quotes are excerpted from ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal  

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO 

Find 6,000+ Recovery Tweets here: twitter.com/jimanders4 

WARNING: Graphic Language of Drug Use CENSORED / DO NOT READ If Easily Triggered

 

(prisonersfamiliesvoices.blogspot.com)

Let me start with this: The Queen of England & Marilyn Monroe were both born in 1926. Seems odd. No joke. Is that true? Yes.

I know now that using certain pictures to grab a reader's attention may not be appropriate, depending on the audience. I know too that my perspective changes over time. 

A different photograph appeared with the short quote a bit further below. The only thing I can recall is the appearance of a hypodermic needle in it. In a sense, it's irrelevant except for that fact. Then and now, some other people's reactions to it seem to me "much ado about nothing." I was trying to express the reality of confronting the cold, hard truth of my addiction to alcohol by using the terminology of a heroin addict.

I believe I may have been simultaneously trying to break through the icy stares of social drinkers and my own fragility to face the fact that addiction is addiction is addiction, whatever the substance, its social acceptance or legality. 

Both the language and photo I used were found to be objectionable to quite a few people, including the administrators of at least one Facebook Recovery Group. TRIGGERS they said. I know a little more and think a bit differently today than then, but my initial reaction was that I am an Alcoholic and that MY TRIGGERS are EVERYWHERE, on television, magazine ads, billboards and on many menus of restaurants that serve liquor, to name a few. So what's the big deal?

My perspective has moved outwards since then.

I know that navigating recovery can indeed be very difficult. My intent (as if that mattered) was not to trigger someone else's addiction. If you think a graphic depiction of drug use might trigger you, stop reading now and continue living in your protective bubble until you gain more strength in recovery. Whatever it takes to remain clean and sober, do that.

Enough already. Here is the objectionable passage in question:

*****

"Slow the injection of truth. Insert the needle of truth into my vein, into my brain, slowly. First, hold the needle upright. Squeeze out any air. Leave only the clear, the liquid, the truth. Inject me slowly. I want to watch that crystal clarity enter my vein. The truth, too fast, could only scare me. Inject me slowly, or quickly watch me die."

*****

Well, there you have it. 

Admittedly, it's a little over-the-top, but it captures the feelings I had at that time confronting the absolute fact that I was an alcoholic in utter denial of the reality I was trying to process. Confront. Confront. Confront. My addiction to alcohol was a brutal truth separate from the glamorization of alcohol in our culture. I was an addict, addicted to alcohol, which in many ways is no different than a heroin addict is addicted to using heroin. I chose in this one short expression of my feelings to confront the cold, hard truth of my alcohol abuse. Stopping drinking, staying stopped, learning to deal with it, was truly an internal confrontation. Complete acceptance accrued over time.

Calling myself an alcoholic felt like a deadly admission that rattled me to the core for a long time. I was surprised at the objections of how I had expressed it in the passage above. It was perhaps insensitive on my part, but the world is insensitive, I thought. "Poor me" was in the mix, too. Self-pity, doubt, fear, a volatile mix of emotions.  

Today, after more than 16 years of continuous sobriety, it is still necessary to reflect upon feelings even after they have evolved and are long passed. Odd perhaps, but memories sometimes help me stay grounded and focused on the future.

Dead or alive, people like Marilyn Monroe and the Queen of England are garnering another day sober somewhere, in AA, NA, Group & Individual Therapy, Smart Recovery and more. My hat is off to anyone anywhere who finds another day clean and sober. We, the men and women in recovery, strive daily to right our rudders on our clean and sober ships.

I hope everyone reading this is TRIGGERED to remain on the path of recovery and not revert to old behaviors. And please note, this time, I will not post this remembrance in any media that may find it objectionable. 

Chill. Strive on. I'm next in line for my Covid-19 vaccine, socially-distanced, close, close to acceptance of whatever comes my way. Sober. Today.  

Thanks!

*****

"Nothing matters more than that we remain sober because when we remain sober everything matters more."

*****

Passages in quotes are excerpted from my Autobiographical Fiction, ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal  

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO 

Find 6,000+ Recovery Tweets here: twitter.com/jimanders4 

THE TERRIBLE TWEET STORM OF AUGUST 8TH, 2020 (a 21-Tweet Salute to Recovery)*

 

(art.com)

I posted 21 Tweets on Twitter on August 8, 2020. Here they are in chronological order as posted:

1. "Can my past, too, be infinite or are all the stones already carved?"

2. "How come if alcohol kills millions of brain cells, it never killed the ones that make me want to drink?" - Author Unknown

3."At least I'm not an addict." That's the sense of moral superiority I once had. Today, that statement would be sadly laughable.

4. "Alcohol separated him from the world in his addiction and loneliness can take him back out there."

5. "No one ever knew he needed help because he was so good at hiding it from himself and from others. Sweet oblivion. Pretty poison."

6. "Not that I'm making excuses, but it just seems that once you slide so far down into your alcoholism after so many years, you are so entrenched that it seems the only answer is another drink."

7. "Where do you turn when more is too much, too empty, too lost?"

8. "It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without also helping himself."  - Ralph Waldo Emerson

9. "I don't think we get more alcoholic. I think it just shows more as time goes on." A New Pair of Glasses, Chuck "C"

10. "I don't know if I can ever feel as empty as Jim has felt. Knowing the cause does not erase the effects of his emptiness. I don't think I've ever felt an emptiness quite like his."

11. "A mind stretched by a new idea never shrinks back to its original dimensions." - Oliver Wendell Holmes

12. "Being drunk allowed me to deal with the drunk in me."

13. "But when he turns his back on empathy, he turns his back upon himself."

14. "Diplomatically searching for others equally high, we (my disease and I) would manufacture memories out of blackouts like free-range intoxicated chickens."

15. "His sobriety, at first, was like a bad translation."

16. "How many keys did I have to lose before I would learn that alcohol no longer opened doors?"

17. "I measured my life in pints instead of hours."

18. "If the brain were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we could not." - Emerson Pugh

19. "It's not trespassing when you cross your own boundaries." - Anonymous

20. "When I thought I could stay sober alone, I wound up drinking alone."

21. "You are what you eat, but what are you when you are only what you drink?"

*(All quotes, except where noted are by the author of All Drinking Aside. Also, all 21 Tweets are excerpted from this same book.)