If You’re Right About Everything You’re in a Hell of a Lot of Trouble – Keith L.

About This Speaker Tape

Keith L. from Carolina Beach, North Carolina shares his story at a recovery conference, beginning with growing up in a large Irish Catholic family in Martins Ferry, Ohio. He describes himself as a fearful child, terrified of what lived under his bed, and tells the story of his brother Denny's first drink at age five — contrasting Denny's normal life trajectory with his own descent into alcoholism. Keith joined the Marine Corps at 17, and on his first night out, experienced the transformative power of alcohol in a Pittsburgh bar — a moment he spent the next 12 years trying to recapture.

His drinking destroyed his marriage and separated him from his two young daughters, Kelly and Kimberly. He describes the insanity of domestic life in active alcoholism — cleaning up after destroying the apartment, fooling the police, and manipulating his wife into apologizing for calling them. After his wife asked him to leave, he ended up on Skid Row in Washington, D.C., and on May 13, 1973, prepared to kill himself with pills. A woman's voice told him not to do it, and he called a treatment center number his wife had given him. He poured out his last bottle of scotch and it shattered in the sink — a moment he credits with saving his life.

Keith's early sobriety stories are rich with old-timer wisdom. His sponsor Dan taught him to check his parking permit when he forgot where he worked, walked him through his fear of heights at a cathedral in Chartres, and prepared him to study genetics in Paris. A man named Harold, who helped dying people in hospitals, taught him that Higher Power uses the worst experiences for the greatest good. Keith recounts making amends to his brother Denny, discovering they had secretly envied each other, and to his father, who revealed he had felt shut out of Keith's life since Keith was twelve years old.

The talk culminates in Keith's transformation around relationships. After years of using women, he got on his knees and promised Higher Power he would live differently. That night he met his wife Julia at a meeting he didn't want to attend. His sponsor Tom walked him through every step of the courtship — buying a ring, getting properly engaged, waiting until marriage. With 21 years sober, Keith reflects that the greatest gift of sobriety is the ability to fall in love with a way of life and actually live up to its principles, rather than violating them and running away.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Introduction and greetings from Carolina Beach home group
• 3:00 The lipstick on the mirror lesson — old-timer tells him to write 'Keith, you were wrong'
• 6:00 Growing up afraid in Martins Ferry, Ohio — the thing under the bed, Catholic school
• 10:00 Sister Victoria and the rosary beads with 11 beads per decade
• 14:00 First real drunk at 17 in a Pittsburgh bar the night he joined the Marine Corps
• 20:00 Marriage destruction — the buffalo robe, trashing the apartment, fooling the police
• 27:00 May 13, 1973 — suicide attempt interrupted by a woman's voice, bottle breaks in the sink
• 33:00 Sponsor Dan stories — forgetting where he worked, first 12-step call at D.C. Jail
• 40:00 Fear of heights conquered at Chartres cathedral holding Dan's hand
• 48:00 Amends to father, meeting Julia, sponsor Tom walks him through courtship