The Spiritual Disease: The Centimeter Side of the Ruler – Keith L.

About This Speaker Tape

Pittsburgh, 1961. A terrified seventeen-year-old kid enters a bar and discovers a "miracle" between the second and third beer: for the first time in his life, he belongs. Keith L. describes a lifelong spiritual blindness that preceded the bottle, a distorted lens that made him see monsters under the bed and feel the sting of a nun's ruler on the centimeter side. He lived as a "punk," a man who punished others for the slightest slight—like stepping on a Twinkie offered in peace.

From the Marine Corps to a basement dive in D.C., Keith describes the disease as a guarantee that he would violate every principle of his station. He mortgaged his life for the ghosts of that first Pittsburgh high. It took a voice in a bathroom and a drive through "the horrors" to find a Higher Power. He traded a life of faking data and wreckage for a love story that began with a firm handshake and a promise that he'd never have to drink again.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Keith L. opens with a joke about his sobriety date and thanks the committee.
• 10:15 Laughter: Story about the 'monster under the bed' and his childhood fear.
• 18:30 The 'affirmations' failure: standing in the mirror and realizing he is 'full of crap'.
• 25:45 The 'rubber man' Adam and the yellow food dye prank on Sister Regina.
• 35:10 The Twinkie story: a detailed look at his pattern of resentment and punishment.
• 48:20 The 'miracle' of the first drink in Pittsburgh and the feeling of finally belonging.
• 58:15 The 'horrors' and the journey to a treatment center in a condemned hotel.
• 1:05:30 Laughter: First impressions of AA and the 'two-headed' greeter.
• 1:15:45 Sponsorship: Dan's approach to the 'I can't remember where I work' problem.
• 1:30:10 The 'lipstick on the mirror' exercise and the lesson of being wrong.
• 1:42:00 Applause: The story of strangling Henry on the table and the room's reaction.