I'm Comfortable

I am perfectly comfortable.

Thank you for asking.

I hope you are perfectly comfortable,too.

=j=

A Gazillion Good Sayings

The following quotes are taken from  http://12stepsource.com/recovery_quotes.html :

• "When you're home by yourself you're behind enemy lines."
• "If you share your pain you cut it in half, if you don't you double it."
• "If you don't want what we have, go back out to what you had."
• "There's no elevator, you have to take the steps."
• "AA is not for people who need it, it's for people who want it."
• "Part of compliance is defiance, but you must arrive at acceptance of the disease."
• "I'm an egomaniac with an inferiority complex."
• "My head is like a bad neighborhood and I shouldn't go in there alone."
• " Religion is for people who are afraid they'll go to hell. Spirituality is for people who have been there."
• "I'm not going to give anybody free rent in my head."

• "I was hopelessly dopeful...now I'm dopelessly hopeful."
• "I used to be a hopeless dope fiend, now I'm a dopeless hope fiend."
• "I need to put things in perspective because I have a disease of perception."
• "An alcoholic is chosen to find God."
• "The quality of your recovery is proportional to the quality of your surrender."
• "I'm a W.C.S. person. That's Worst Case scenario"
• "I'm basically a negative person, that's why I'm so happy."
• "Untreated alcoholism without the steps on a daily basis will make my past my future."
• "Uncover...Discover...Discard."
• "Those who relapse are attending powerlessness graduate school."
• "This program changes the way I relate to me. That's what I'm trying to do, change the way I relate to me."
• "If you commit suicide you're killing the wrong person."
• "If you're not moving away from a drink you're moving closer to it."
• "I've been beating up on myself so much I feel like hitting myself."
• "A critic is a person who goes onto the battlefield after the battle has been fought and shoots the survivors."

• "AA is not a program to get sober...it's a program to live your life successfully and to be happy once you get sober."
• "I'd never trade my worst day sober for my best day drunk."
• "Being an alcoholic does not give me the excuse to act alcoholically."
• "I worked my using hard, so now I want to work my sobriety hard."
• "The shortest sentence in the Big Book is, "It Works."
• "The power behind me is greater than the problem in front of me."
• "When you're in fear you're not in faith."
• "A fear faced is a fear erased."
• "Every time I draw a sober breath I'm like a fish out of water."
• "I was a scream in search of a mouth."
• "I didn't make it all the way to the beach to drown in the sand."
• "Drinking gave me the illusion that I might be alive." (Chekhov, Uncle Vanya)
• "I am one drink away from never being sober again for the rest of my life."
• "Praying is asking God for help, meditating is listening for God's answer."
• "The reason I'm here is because I'm not all there."
• "Put your chip under your tongue and if it dissolves you can take another drink."
• "My biggest problem was bottles of the two-legged variety."
• "My basic problem is that I flee from those who want me and I pursue the rejecters."
  • "When I live in the past, I live in regret. When I live in the future, I live in fear. When I stay in the NOW, everything's always okay." (from Joan T.)
  • "If I could drink socially I'd get drunk every night."
  • "There's no speeding in the trudging zone."
  • "Having a resentment is like drinking poison and expecting someone else to die."
  • "Courage is fear in action."
  • "Had the eyes no tears, the soul would have no rainbow." (from Teresa)
  • "God will heal your broken heart, if you will give Him all the pieces." (from Teresa)
  • "My life hereafter is from this moment on."
  • "We are attracted to people who share in our growth and progress and lose interest in those who don't."
  • "Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear." (Ambrose Redmoon)
  • "Self will imprisoned me far more than bars ever did."
  • "I've definitely got the "ism" in alcoholism...that's incredibly short memory."
  • "I had to learn how to float in this program because I'm a sinker."
  • On relapse: "I never did anything in moderation...except maybe the steps."
  • "Bring the body and the mind follows."
  • "It's not the load that takes you down...it's the way you carry it."
  • "When you choose the lesser of two evils, always remember that it is still an evil." (Max Lerner)
    • "AA is not for people who need it, its for people who want it."
    • "Untreated alcoholism without the steps on a daily basis will make my past my future."
    • "If youre not moving away from a drink youre moving closer to it."
    • "Sobriety is a journey ..........not a destination"
    • "Poor me.....poor me............pour me another drink"
    • "It works -------it really does ! (page 88,line 8 in the big book)"
    • "The road to sobriety is a simple journey for confused people with a complicated disease"
    • "Dont drink, read the big book, and go to meetings"
    • "Remember that alcoholism is incurable, progressive, and fatal"
    • "Call your sponsor before, not after, you take the first drink"
    • "One alcoholic talking to another...........one equals one"
    • "There are 12 steps in the ladder of complete sobriety"
    • "We can be positive that our drinking was negative"
    • "If I think, I wont drink. if I drink, I cant think"
    • "Be as enthusiastic about AA as you were about your drinking"
    • "Alcoholism is the only disease that tells you youre all right"
    • "An AA meeting is where losers get together to talk about their winnings"
    • "AA is a school in which we are all learners and all teachers"
    • "AA may not solve all your problems but it is willing to share them"
    • "There are none too dumb for the AA program but many are too smart"
    • "We all have another drunk left in us but we dont know if we have another recovery in us"
    • "The person with the most sobriety at a meeting is the one who got up earliest that morning"
    • "When a person tries to control their drinking they have already lost control"
    • "We in AA dont carry the alcoholic; we carry the message"
    • "The 3 ts of gratitude to repay AA for our sobriety: our time, our talent, our treasure"
    • "AA is the highest priced club in the world.........if u have paid the dues, why not enjoy the benefits ?"
    • "AA never opened the gates of heaven to let me in, AA did open the gates of hell to let me out"
    • "Some people are so successful in AA that they turn out to be almost as good as they used to think they were when they were drinking"

      "If you like everyone in AA, youre not going to enough meetings!" "People didnt recruit me for this program, alcohol did; and i might add:  a fine job it did." "Most alcoholics would rather die than learn anything about themselves.  In fact, they do." "My admiration for the phenomenon of Alcoholics Anonymous is boundless." ~Mercedes McCambridge "The first thing in the human personality that dissolves in alcohol is dignity." ~Author Unknown "You can preserve many things in alcohol...except your dignity." ~Author Unknown "First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you." ~Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald "One reason I dont drink is that I want to know when I am having a good time." ~Lady Astor "I like liquor - its taste and its effects - and that is just the reason why I never drink it." ~Thomas Jackson "Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink I feel ashamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didnt drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, it is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver." ~Jack Handey " Woman first tempted man to eat; he took to drinking of his own accord. ~Four Hundred Laughs: Or, Fun Without Vulgarity, compiled and edited by John R. Kemble, 1902" "Drinking makes such fools of people, and people are such fools to begin with, that its compounding a felony." ~Robert Benchley "The chief reason for drinking is the desire to behave in a certain way, and to be able to blame it on alcohol. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotics Notebook, 1960" "Even though a number of people have tried, no one has yet found a way to drink for a living." ~Jean Kerr "Drunkenness is temporary suicide. ~Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness" "Drunkenness is nothing but voluntary madness." ~Seneca "When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading." ~Henny Youngman "How come if alcohol kills millions of brain cells, it never killed the ones that made me want to drink?" ~Author Unknown "Alcohol doesnt console, it doesnt fill up anyones psychological gaps, all it replaces is the lack of God." ~Marguerite Duras "Alcoholism isnt a spectator sport. Eventually the whole family gets to play." ~Joyce Rebeta-Burditt "A few years back I was more a candidate for skid row bum than an Emmy. If I hadnt stopped drinking, I'd be playing handball with John Belushi right now." ~John Larroquette (adapted) "There is this to be said in favor of drinking, that it takes the drunkard first out of society, then out of the world."~Ralph Waldo Emerson "Alcohol is a good preservative for everything but brains." ~Mary Pettibone Poole "It is most absurdly said, in popular language, of any man, that he is disguised in liquor; for, on the contrary, most men are disguised by sobriety." ~Thomas de Quincy, Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, 1856 "I made a commitment to completely cut out drinking and anything that might hamper me from getting my mind and body together. And the floodgates of goodness have opened upon me, spiritually and financially." ~ Denzel Washington "If drinking is interfering with your work, youre probably a heavy drinker. If work is interfering with your drinking, youre probably an alcoholic." ~Author Unknown "THE PROBLEM: His craving for alcohol was the equivalent, on a low level, of the spiritual thirst of our being for wholeness, expressed in medieval language: the union with God. THE SOLUTION: You see, alcohol in Latin is spiritus and you use the same word for the highest religious experience as well as for the most depraving poison. The helpful formula therefore is: spiritus contra spiritum." "AA is not a program to get sober...its a program to live your life successfully and to be happy once you get sober." "I'd never trade my worst day sober for my best day drunk." "Being an alcoholic does not give me the excuse to act alcoholically." "I worked my using hard, so now I want to work my sobriety hard." "The shortest sentence in the Big Book is, It Works." "Every time I draw a sober breath Im like a fish out of water." "Drinking gave me the illusion that I might be alive." (Chekhov, Uncle Vanya) "I am one drink away from never being sober again for the rest of my life." "Put your chip under your tongue and if it dissolves you can take another drink." "If I could drink socially I'd get drunk every night." "Having a resentment is like drinking poison and expecting someone else to die." "Self will imprisoned me far more than bars ever did." "Ive definitely got the ism in alcoholism...thats incredibly short memory." "My sobriety depends on who God is, not who I am." (Duane M.) "Now that Im sober I hit my knees in a different way than I used to." (Jay) "Living our pre-AA active daily lifestyle was akin to switching seats on the Titanic." "A recovering alcoholic without a sponsor is much like leaving Dracula in charge of the blood bank." "First the man takes a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes the man." "The secret to long term sobriety: Dont drink, dont die." "When I moved in sobriety, I went to the meetings and thought, Oh, you do things differently here...i.e., wrong." (Mike M.) "Our defects of character are the bars of a cage. The central point is not to study the bars, but to get out of the cage." "The most natural state of an alcoholic is irritable, restless, and discontented." "Funny...I ruined my health by drinking to others!" "The chains of alcohol are too light to be felt until they are too strong to be broken." "I didnt get into trouble every time I drank, but every time I got into trouble I was drinking." "Whatever you put before your sobriety; you shall surely lose." "AA is not for people who need it. AA is not for people who want it. AA is for people who do it." "Regarding hanging out at bars: If you hang out at the barbershop long enough you're bound to get a haircut. "If you know someone who tries to drown their sorrows, you might tell them sorrows know how to swim."

Experiencing ALS

How To Experience ALS Briefly.....


I had the oddest experience when my family took me to the old market in Omaha.
I was riding in a simple folding wheelchair with no suspension and solid rubber wheels.

My brother-in-law, Tim, was pushing me energetically.  The sidewalks were uneven and
as he pushed me down the old brick paver street, I got the weirdest sensation...

One of the main symptoms of ALS [besides weakness, paralysis, and spasms] are ''fasciculations'' (i.e., twitches and shivering all over one's body even to the point of chattering teeth).  We discovered that getting pushed in a wheelchair down a brick street is very similar to the fasciculation  of ALS!  So, if you want to know what ALS is like, all you need is a wheelchair, an old brick street, and a strong friend to push you!

 How to not experience ALS for the long term…

I was diagnosed with ALS in April – eight months ago. While there is no known proven cause, there  are several theories.  I have been reminiscing about my past looking for clues...  Every month, I would have a new theory as to the cause of my illness.  If you can stay away from these, your chances of getting ALS are reduced.

Pesticides –

I was exposed to a lot of pesticides as a child. The city of Omaha sprayed DDT on the
elm trees to prevent them from the Dutch Elm disease in the 1960s. Many, many elm trees were planted  in Omaha and other cities because they grow rapidly. The Dutch Elm disease was so rampant in the 1960s and killed so many trees that it was joked that ''Elmwood Park'' would be re-named ''Stump Park''. 

My grandmother worked in a greenhouse and brought home ''chlordane'' - which like DDT is now banned.  My parents are average Americans - if some is good, then more is better and too much is the best.


If a bug is seen in your home you may be criticized. So pour gallons of pesticide, to be the envy of your neighbors.   But, before the 1970s, the dangers of pesticides were not well known.  


My mother used bleach in her dish washing water. She knew that ammonia was a good cleanser and bleach was a good cleanser. But she wanted to have the cleanest home - to be the envy of the  neighborhood, so she mixed them together.  It probably is a very effective cleanser, but since the side effects of mixing those two agents is a toxic gas that produces un-consciousness and death....there are very few people who use it.

Mercury/silver amalgam dental fillings-

Mercury is very toxic.  The dentistry industry just change the name of these cheap effective fillings to ''silver amalgam fillings'' although the main ingredient is mercury not silver. Fortunately, I had many fillings as a child.  I was the oldest of six children. At bedtime, I would put on my jammies, brush my teeth, go with the other children off to bed. Then sneak off to watch the Tonight Show alone with my father....and have a bowl of sugar cereal!  And I thought that since I already brushed my teeth, I did not have to brush them again!  So, you can see why I have a lot of fillings. Get any silver fillings safely removed by a good dentist as soon as possible. There are new miracle ceramics these days.  And they look better, too.

MSG-

Monosodium glutamate is a neurotoxin. Neurotoxin means toxic to nerves.  Many processed foods, especially Chinese food, and especially Ramen noodles have a lot of MSG. The ALS disease involves the glutamate in the nervous system. I will not say that MSG is a killer because most people tolerate it just fine. If MSG was a killer, our streets would be filled with dead college students, dead bachelors and dead poor people!


I admit in my life, rich or poor, single or married I loved Ramen noodles with tuna. Noodles with MSG, and tuna with mercury.  Yum Yum!  My ex-wife, an excellent nurse, even warned me that it was not good that I ate so many Ramen noodles.  Gee, I hate it when she is right!  sigh...

Stress/ irregular sleep patterns-

I was not a good student, or for that matter, employee.  I pushed myself and tried really hard to graduate college and to be a good husband and provider.  I don't blame my ex-wife for this, but she was a lot smarter and capable.  Seemed like everything she touched turned to gold , and everything I touched turned to poop. She had better jobs and was never laid off...and I frequently was. But, she was a nurse and I was a sales person.  In the nature of our economy the fact is that nurses' jobs are much more secure than most other people's jobs. 

And since I did not make enough money in my primary job, I had to take a part-time night job to try to match her income. I hope it does not sound like I am blaming her!  Back in the 80s and before, it was widely accepted that the man should make more money than the woman.  No one forced me to do these things – I was just trying to fill the role that society dictated.   But I do remember as far back as high school that I did not react well to stress and being up all night.  It kind of felt like I was coming out of a bad alcoholic hangover – kind of like an emotional hangover.

Toxic smoke –

All my life I've been around toxic smoke.  It was my job to burn the trash as a child, burned toxic treated wood and PVC plumbing at construction sites, and doing welding, which has smoke with heavy metals in it.  And I was a volunteer firefighter!

Head trauma –

I guess this is a no-brainer to advise people to avoid head trauma. But, then again maybe I've had so much head trauma, that I don't get it!  I was my mother's first child and a difficult birth.  A 24 hour labor, and the doctors had to grab my head with forceps and yanked me out.  My aunt was in the attending nurse and she said that I had a small cut on my head as a result.


As a toddler, I found a hole cut into the floor in a closet that was used as a laundry chute and fell through it.  An 8 foot drop onto concrete. My mother says she found me laughing. I'd like to think I was a super genius up to that point - and I've been a goofy laughing semi-genius ever since then!


I remember falling a lot in my childhood and teenage years.  Plus I'm tall (6 foot 3) and I hit my head a lot in doorways, attics, and in basements. And while I was lucky enough to travel to Europe three times in my life (for a total of 10 months) they have very old buildings with very short ceilings and doorways.  The net result being that I literally bonked my head on the history of Europe!

Then in high school and college I played intramural soccer, which involved head butting the ball!

Alcoholism –   

Now, I am not saying that alcoholism or drinking to excess causes ALS.  But, some of the side effects of my drinking may have contributed to my illness.  For example,  falling down and hitting my head, falling down into a campfire (Gee ,it was smoky in there), and in college – if I had $50 a week for food – I would spend five dollars of it on Ramen noodles and tuna – and spend the other $45 on beverage alcohol! L D 

Being a soldier –  

It is proven that military people get ALS at almost twice the level of civilians.  This could be due to:  high levels of MSG in the military food rations, the pollution of the battlefield, ingestion of lead from being around bullets, stress, irregular sleep patterns, etc.  I think farmers are also at an increased risk of ALS – probably due to the pesticides.


To sum up  – 

ALS is very rare – one in 100,000 people get it. So probably just the fact that you know someone with ALS, means statistically that you'll never get it.  I hope that none of my family or friends get ALS – I would not wish it on my worst enemy.  Not that I have many enemies...at least that I know of.
  
Jack