Financial Sobriety and the V-Graph of His Life – Paul O.

About This Speaker Tape

A nut ward in the hospital, where the only way out is to make a leather belt. Paul O. didn't see how a belt would fix his life, but he saw a loud-voiced attorney named Frank who claimed to be an alcoholic. Paul describes himself as an "alcoholic by marriage," a man who once locked his home bar with a brass hasp only to pick the lock with a bobby pin and eventually vomit green from drinking too much crème de menthe. He spent seven months in meetings just to figure out what the other drunks were laughing about before he finally caught the "virus" of alcoholism himself.

Now 28 years sober, Paul views sobriety as a baseball diamond: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. He speaks of the "committee in his head"—the warring voices that either sabotage his marriage or celebrate it. For Paul, recovery is a choice of which voice to listen to and a constant motion to stay ahead of a disease that is always stalking him.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:45 Laughter: Paul O. jokes about his 'bashful bladder' and the benefits of AA coffee.
• 4:15 Mention of the Third Step, Serenity Prayer, and Seventh Step Prayer.
• 10:30 The 'brass lock' saga: attempting to lock himself out of his own home bar.
• 15:20 The green crème de menthe purge and the descent into the hospital nut ward.
• 18:45 Meeting Frank, the loud attorney from AA, and the first introduction to the program.
• 24:10 The 'virus' theory: how he caught alcoholism by listening to others in meetings for seven months.
• 32:15 Discussion on the 'committee in my head' and managing internal dialogue.
• 38:40 The baseball diamond metaphor for physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual sobriety.
• 45:10 The exacting ritual of making coffee for Max M. as an act of love.
• 52:30 Final reflections on the power of acceptance and the 'predominant mood' at the gates of heaven.