Stop Doing What You Want and Start Doing What You Need – Jack S.

About This Speaker Tape

The alleys of Louisville Kentucky became the home of Jack S., once a Catholic school valedictorian, now a 'skid-row drunk.' He describes the 'I-Syndrome'—a lifelong drive to handle everything alone—that blinded him to his own wreckage until he was 33. After being dumped in a psychiatric ward at Our Lady of Peace Hospital Jack S. is forced into his first AA meeting where he is met by a woman who offers him a cookie and a kindness he doesn't understand.

He maps out the transition from a man who viewed the world as a series of threats to someone who found a 'spiritual community' by learning to listen to an old-timer who told him to stop thinking and start living. He cuts through the illusion of control contrasting the 'living room gutters' of the wealthy with the literal sewers he once called home eventually finding a stable marriage and a career with the railroad.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Jack S. opens with his sobriety date: August 21, 1962.
• 4:30 Laughter: Jack S. jokes about the 'weirdness' of young people in recovery today compared to 1962.
• 10:15 Jack S. describes his 'I-Syndrome' and the difficulty of accepting the 'We' in Step One.
• 16:40 The story of the preacher and the stolen bicycle.
• 22:10 Jack S. discusses his career with the railroad and the company's approach to drug and alcohol abuse.
• 31:00 Jack S. describes the 'breeding ground of humility' in the backseat of a squad car.
• 42:15 Detailed account of living in 'Wino Alley' and the hierarchy of cardboard boxes.
• 52:00 The encounter with Jack D. and the transition to Our Lady of Peace Hospital.
• 58:30 Jack S.'s first AA meeting and the woman who offered him a cookie.
• 1:05:00 The influence of the old-timer who told him to 'sit down and shut up' and stop thinking.
• 1:12:00 Jack S. defines a Higher Power as the 'intangible spirit of truth'.
• 1:18:00 Closing story about the poisonous snake and the nature of the first drink.