Rewrote the Third Step Prayer: Higher Power Get Rid of This Ego, It’s Driving Me Crazy – Ken H.

About This Speaker Tape

Ken H. returns to the NAVA Club's Blue Chip Speaker Meeting ten years after opening it, sober since February 27, 1993. He tells a story that is less about quitting drinking and more about learning to live truthfully. He started at 14 stealing gin into an emptied Vitalis bottle, chased it with Boone's Farm, got arrested at a high school football game, and kept collecting near-misses he could rationalize — including multiple car wrecks where cops slapped his wrist and let him go.

The turn came in 1989, when he hit a woman on 400 going 55 in the slow lane. She never woke up from her coma. He hired the best lawyer, caught a plea bargain while his judge was out of town — five weekends, 250 hours of community service, a thousand-dollar fine — and quit drinking cold for the length of his probation. When the pressure lifted, he drank again, hid it from his wife, and bottomed out the day he dropped two hits of acid before taking his five- and eight-year-old daughters hiking up Amicalola Falls. His wife left for Ohio, gave him an ultimatum, and he walked into a 7 a.m. meeting at the 8111 club.

His sponsor was a jolly old man twice his age who carried the message to every newcomer in the room. Ken rewrote the Third Step Prayer in language that worked for him — begging his Higher Power to get rid of the ego that was driving him crazy. He did thirty days on his knees reciting his character defects out loud until he could spot the lie mid-sentence. His top offender is being defensive — catch that, and the judgment and justifying don't have to follow.

The centerpiece story is the Kmart putter: three trips across Atlanta traffic chasing a $15 club, opening the box on the shelf, paying for the putter but not the bag, then calling the store back to confess. He has over 8,000 meetings, still hits the first meeting of the day to clear his head, and sponsors anyone who asks. Tim, who runs the Blue Chip meeting, presents him a sponsor chip at the end — thirteen years earlier Ken had touched Tim's shoulder after a 6:15 a.m. meeting and told him he'd never have to feel that way again.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Jeff opens the Blue Chip Speaker Meeting at NAVA Club and introduces Ken
• 2:30 Ken at 14 — stealing gin into an empty Vitalis bottle, arrested at a football game
• 6:00 K5 Blazer wreck at 80 mph — snaps a wheel, drives a mile, cop believes his story
• 9:00 1989 accident on Highway 400 — the woman who never woke up from her coma
• 14:00 Plea bargain and five weekends in jail after the judge leaves town
• 18:00 Amicalola Falls hike with his daughters after dropping two hits of acid
• 24:00 First call to his sponsor — three hours of talking and the anxiety finally lifts
• 31:00 Rewriting the Third Step prayer in his own language to get rid of the ego
• 38:00 Thirty days on his knees reciting character defects — defensive is the top offender
• 48:00 The Kmart putter — three store runs, opening the box, and calling back to confess
• 58:00 Tim and Preston present Ken a sponsor chip — the 6:15 a.m. meeting where it started