Step 5 and the Priest Who Told Him He Was Full of Sh*t – Russell S.

About This Speaker Tape

A Jesuit priest with a PhD and a history as a POW once told Russell S. that he was full of shit and that bluntness became the surgical knife that cut out eight months of obsessive worry. With 29 years of sobriety under his belt Russell S. dissects the difference between just stopping the drink and achieving emotional sobriety

. He moves from the 'boot camp' of early recovery—where he felt like a little chicken hiding in the fellowship—to a place where he can love without expectation. He recounts the grit of the Fourth Step the danger of the 'obsessive stalking alky love,' and the slow process of losing the appetite for gossip.

Through stories of stage four cancer and the 'Guy in the Glass,' he argues that spiritual maturity isn't found in a textbook but in the pounding and chipping of the furnace of life.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Opening remarks on emotional sobriety and the Bill W. letter.
• 3:30 Laughter: The story of the church bus and the 'people who do not mix'.
• 7:15 Discussion on the nuance of 'trying to carry the message' versus the pressure to succeed.
• 10:20 The shift in perspective after completing the Step 4 moral inventory.
• 13:10 Reading of 'The Guy in the Glass' poem regarding self-honesty.
• 17:45 The 'boot camp' metaphor for surviving the first few decades of sobriety.
• 22:10 Story of a sponsee with stage four cancer ministering to his doctor.
• 28:30 The 'Right Now' lesson from Joe S. and Bud D. on living in the present.
• 34:15 The encounter with Father Al G. and the 'full of shit' spiritual breakthrough.
• 41:00 Reflections on the addiction to gossip and the 'AA police' phase.