Don P. on the Third Tradition, Group Conscience, and Big Book Study

About This Speaker Tape

A federal penitentiary cell in Tokyo was the first stop in a long line of wreckage for Don P. a man who describes himself as a 'failure at living and a failure at dying.' He spent decades bouncing between high-drama chaos—smuggling 30 kilos of marijuana across the Mexican border using dirty diapers and screaming children as cover—and the crushing weight of psychic pain. After a failed suicide attempt on Christmas night 1967 he found a brutal no-nonsense brand of recovery in the 'fish tank' of the Colorado State Penitentiary.

Don P.'t narrative focuses on the slow gritty work of the steps moving from a 'sociopath type 2' diagnosis to a life of predictability and service. He details the painstaking process of making amends from paying back a drugstore for Christmas lights to the 22-year silence between him and his brother eventually trading the 'flash of light' for a steady quiet usefulness.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:45 Don P. discusses the Third Tradition and the naming of his home group.
• 4:15 Laughter: Don P. jokes about his son 'wimping out' of alcoholism.
• 10:30 Don P. describes the 'spiritual experience' of his first drinks of bonded bourbon in high school.
• 15:00 Don P. recounts his time in a federal penitentiary in Tokyo and his 'rock bottom' in Los Angeles.
• 22:15 Don P. describes the 'craving' and the physical lengths he went to to make room for more alcohol.
• 30:00 Don P. details the smuggling of marijuana across the border from Juarez.
• 36:45 Don P.'s failed suicide attempt on Christmas night 1967 and his subsequent arrest.
• 42:00 Don P. describes the 'catch-22' of needing shoes to go to chow in the Denver County Jail.
• 46:30 Mentions of 12-step study school in the Colorado State Penitentiary.
• 52:00 Don P. discusses the Third Step prayer and the lack of a 'flash of light'.
• 56:15 Don P.'s experience with the Fourth Step inventory and the 'phony' sponsor.
• 60:00 Don P.'s amends to his brother and his mother.