The Simple Answer for a Complex Person – Steve B.

About This Speaker Tape

Columbia, South Carolina, 1979. Steve B. didn't have a cinematic "drunkologue"—no suitcases of cash or high-speed chases. Instead, he died by seconds and inches, sinking into a cloth chair that smelled of sweat and oblivion, crying hysterically at the television. He describes the "alcoholic insanity" of trying to solve life's wreckage with a drink, and the jarring transition into a recovery world run by retired sergeant majors with eighth-grade educations who had no patience for "college educated white boys."

A self-described "complex person" and former "President of the Nice Guy Society," Steve admits he spent years enraged, screaming in the shower at a Higher Power who told him his anger was the only thing keeping him on his knees. Through the grit of home groups and the "quantum physics" of letting tailgaters pass, he found a sanctuary in the simple answer: the only way to stop drinking is to stop drinking.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Steve B. opens with a joke about his lack of balance in life and his sobriety date of May 25, 1979.
• 5:15 Laughter: Steve B. describes the 'boring' nature of his drinking history compared to the high-drama stories of others.
• 8:40 Steve B. discusses his sexual inventory and a humorous encounter with a nun during a retreat.
• 15:20 Steve B. describes the 'ahhh' feeling of the first drink and the insanity of the alcoholic mind.
• 22:10 Steve B. discusses the 'Nice Guy Society' and the anger he faced in early sobriety.
• 30:45 Steve B. shares the trauma of betrayal in his marriage and the risk of suicide.
• 38:10 Steve B. describes the 'bomb' going off in his life and the 'Big Book Blue' bomb shelter.
• 45:00 Steve B. delivers a satirical '12 Steps of Alcoholism' (the opposite of the recovery steps).
• 52:15 The parable of the cost of sobriety and the total surrender of one's life to a Higher Power.
• 58:00 Closing: The meeting ends with the Lord's Prayer.