Why Spirituality Is the Air in the Tires – Sandy B.

About This Speaker Tape

3rd Spring Roundup - 1993

A bottle of vodka was a library book—an adventure novel where you never knew if the plot ended in jail or with a blonde. Sandy B. a former Marine fighter pilot describes a life spent trying to jump out of his own skin to escape a mind that felt like a punishing cage. He recalls the wreckage of the DTs and straitjackets in a 1964 naval hospital nut ward where he once lost a clay ashtray competition to a Lieutenant Commander who smashed his work on purpose. For Sandy alcohol didn't cause problems it solved the fundamental problem of not knowing how to exist in the world. He frames recovery as a process of 'unwrapping' the garbage of self-centeredness to reveal the beauty already inside comparing spiritual maintenance to keeping air in the tires of a luxury car—because without it the first pothole in the road will destroy the rim.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Sandy B. opens with gratitude for the conference and the irony of being 'selected' by a cop.
• 2:15 Laughter: Story about the 1964 naval hospital nut ward and the smashed clay ashtray.
• 6:40 Discussion on the 'shortcut to growing up' and the nature of alcoholic immaturity.
• 11:20 The 'Alice in Wonderland' effect: how alcohol transformed threatening people into magnificent beings.
• 16:10 The 'dentist's cup' test and the struggle of hiding shakes in the Marine Corps.
• 20:45 Description of the first 12 Step call and the 'boot camp' sponsorship style.
• 26:30 The 'library book' metaphor for the unpredictability of a bottle of vodka.
• 32:10 The 'low air' metaphor: comparing spiritual maintenance to tire pressure.
• 38:00 Closing thoughts on the power of meetings to 'pump' people back up.