Favorite Sentence in the Big Book Is Four Words — It Works, It Really Does – Tommy M.

About This Speaker Tape

Tommy M. from the Dawson Group shares at the Napa Club Monday Night Blue Chip Speakers Meeting with a sobriety date of August 22, 1997. He opens warm and self-deprecating, naming fear as his core issue — fear that others will find him not enough, that they'll see behind the facade. He qualifies for every 12-step program but honors singleness of purpose, and credits humor with keeping him from crying all the time.

Childhood wreckage in Brookhaven by Silver Lake — two alcoholic parents who checked out after raising his sisters seven years ahead of him. First blackout at 14, coming to naked on the bathroom floor with his parents and all their cocktail party guests standing over him. He tanked his college career after a blackout in a borrowed Volkswagen broke his blind date's back; he lied to police and walked away without a scratch, got six F's skipping class to sit at her hospital bed. Owned the Sandbar and Grill on Piedmont for 20 years and ran annual 'Sober October' pots with other bar owners that he'd cave on by day five.

Two grand mal seizures from drinking brought him in — the first at his own New Year's Eve party after six weeks up, the second in a courtroom where he faked epilepsy to walk again. Judge Moran (same last name) court-ordered him three times. A Dallas plumber sponsor came to town, called him out for being full of it, and parked him with Duane, who became his sponsor at the Waffle House. Up to that point he'd been faking attendance at 81-11 by standing outside as the unofficial greeter.

The worst wreckage came inside the rooms: divorce at three to five years sober, wife took the kids, sold the bar, foreclosed on the house, real estate career tanked when the market turned. Then myasthenia gravis — ptosis in one eye, muscles failing, breathing crises, 36 pills a day, the teacher asking him not to come back. Alone at the lake, too weak to reach the .357 in his drawer, he felt God's presence for the second time in his life and surrendered to doing his part. Eight years in remission now, zero pills, works at MARR. Closes with his favorite sentence in the Big Book: it works, it really does.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Owen Jones opens Napa Club Monday Night Blue Chip Speakers Meeting; Terry introduces Tommy from the Dawson Group
• 2:30 Tommy M. identifies, sobriety date August 22, 1997, names fear as core issue and the Japanese three-faces idea
• 7:00 Owned the Sandbar and Grill on Piedmont 20 years; Sober October pot with bar owners, caved at five days
• 10:30 Childhood in Brookhaven; first blackout at 14 naked on the bathroom floor during parents' cocktail party
• 14:00 Blackout VW crash broke blind date's back; lied to police, got six F's skipping class to sit at her hospital
• 18:00 First grand mal seizure at his own New Year's Eve party; told cop he'd done heroin as a joke and passed out
• 22:00 Second grand mal in Judge Moran's courtroom; faked epilepsy to the prosecutor and walked again
• 29:00 Dallas plumber sponsor calls him full of it, assigns Duane; Waffle House becomes their meeting
• 36:00 Divorce, kids gone, bar sold, house foreclosed; myasthenia gravis onset with hand shimmer at the chip table
• 43:00 Alone at the lake too weak to reach the .357; second felt-presence of God, surrenders to doing his part