Step 2 and the Dignity of Insanity – Ray V.

About This Speaker Tape

Tampa Bay Fall Roundup - 1994

A Southern Baptist preacher and licensed therapist with a penchant for pills and a history of 'puking standing straight up' reflects on the wreckage of a life spent masking feelings. Ray V. describes a chaotic descent into alcoholism—marked by a 'secret hiding place' and bottles of Mad Dog 20/20—that eventually left him homeless with his belongings in a single pillowcase. He details the brutal but necessary intervention of his sponsor Al Z. who 'lost' the straw-draw to take him on. Through the lens of a man who once hid from his children and now holds a PhD in Christian Psychology Ray V. maps the shift from intellectualizing the program to experiencing the raw restoration of trust culminating in the moment his daughter trusted him to watch her son overnight.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:45 Ray V. discusses the irony of being a preacher, therapist, and alcoholic.
• 5:12 Laughter: Story about the 'single by choice' ladies and the condom on the piano.
• 11:30 Ray V. describes his 'ethnic period' drinking Mad Dog 20/20.
• 16:45 Discussion on the psychological trap of comparing our 'insides' to other people's 'outsides'.
• 21:10 The 'Puke on the Carpet' experience and the honey/egg remedy at the Irving Group.
• 26:30 Mention of Step 1 and the realization of powerlessness.
• 31:15 Ray V. discusses his resistance to religion versus his acceptance of spirituality.
• 36:20 The story of Al Z. and the 'straw-draw' sponsorship.
• 42:10 Emotional account of his son calling his grandmother to say 'my daddy don't drink no more'.
• 48:50 The story of the map and the man: putting the man back together to fix the world.