The Aer Lingus Cabin Crew Were Like Sherpas Pushing Drink Carts at a 45-Degree Angle – Paul M.

About This Speaker Tape

An Irish-born alcoholic tells his story of drinking from age nine — when he got drunk at a family bar, sang Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on stage, and fell off — through his teenage years in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, to his eventual immigration to New York where he tended bar in Rockaway Beach and drank around the clock. He describes alcohol as a counterfeit spiritual experience, referencing Bill Wilson's first drink and Carl Jung's observation about the shared root of "spirit" in both the highest and lowest human experiences. He traces how booze shrank his world until he sat alone in an apartment, starving, listening to B.B. King, watching people walk to work and wanting to join them but unable to.

On August 19, 1992, at age 30, he got on his knees for the first time in 15 years and asked for help. He describes an immediate sense of peace, followed by a visit from Jerry, a member of the Old South Bronx group who had been sober since 1961 and knew Bill Wilson personally. Jerry told him the spiritual experience would get him sober but wouldn't keep him sober — he needed Alcoholics Anonymous. Four days later he attended his first meeting, and he has not taken a drink since.

He emphasizes the distinction between giving up and letting go, and between quitting drinking and actually recovering. He went from having no high school diploma at 32 to bartending his way through school, earning two master's degrees, and becoming a school teacher. He frames his sobriety around the three legacies — unity, service, and recovery — arguing that without all three, an alcoholic like him is just white-knuckling it until the next drunk. He closes by urging newcomers that they are only 12 steps away from a brand new life, no matter how deep they are.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Opens with humor about being Irish, jokes about speaking Gaelic, introduces the first step
• 3:00 Story of getting drunk at age nine in Newcastle County Down, singing Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on stage and falling off
• 7:00 Alcohol as counterfeit spiritual experience — parallels Bill Wilson's first drink and Carl Jung's observation about the word spirit
• 12:00 Growing up during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, using external chaos to avoid looking at his own drinking
• 17:00 Flying Aer Lingus to America, landing in Rockaway Beach, getting a job as a bartender in a wild New York bar
• 23:00 Bill Wilson on the bus — Armistice Day story about self-knowledge failing against the obsession to drink
• 30:00 Hole in the Head comes back from AA and describes it to the bar — the whole room goes silent
• 36:00 Locked in apartment drinking for two weeks, listening to B.B. King, watching people walk to work and wanting to join them
• 42:00 August 19, 1992 — gets on his knees, feels a weight lift, Jerry from the Old South Bronx group arrives for a 12th step call
• 50:00 Sobriety results — no diploma at 32, bartended through school, earned two master's degrees, became a teacher, closing message of hope