Sponsorship Without the Radio Stations – Aaron G.

About This Speaker Tape

St. Louis ice and a mother who stole steaks from the grocery store shaped Aaron G. He grew up as the "captain of his own ship," a self-centered kid who used "magic elixirs" like Old English 800 and Mad Dog 2020 to mask a deep fear of disapproval. He lived as a "car drinker," mixing gin and cocaine in an '85 Camaro, eventually hitting a wall of dehydration and 90 pounds of bone at a hospital.

For nine years, he bounced in and out of rooms, convinced he was just a crackhead who could still drink. It took hitting rock bottom—homeless and sleeping on two Ottomans—to finally listen. He found a sponsor who demanded he stop being a "taker" and start stacking chairs. Aaron describes the struggle of the "God suit," the ego that rebuilds itself around year four, leading him to lie on a resume and get escorted off a job. Through a Higher Power and rigid sponsorship, he learned to spell love to his children as T-I-M-E rather than money.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:45 Childhood in St. Louis and the 'cattle rustler' mother.
• 3:15 The value of truth and the danger of keeping secrets in darkness.
• 5:20 First drinks: Old English 800 in the 7th grade.
• 7:45 Description of Junior and the 'refrigerator' habits of a late-stage alcoholic.
• 11:10 The 'wouldn't it be nice' question from the doctor at Robert F. Kennedy Hospital.
• 14:30 Lying to the VA hospital intake to get a bed on the lockdown ward.
• 17:15 Identification with a speaker who had 22 years sober but was still struggling financially.
• 21:00 The 'Ottoman' bed and the transition from taker to giver through service commitments.
• 24:45 Rebuilding the relationship with his children through 'T-I-M-E'.
• 28:10 Laughter: The story of lying on a resume four years into sobriety and the 'ego rebuilding itself'.