From the book:
“When people are ignorant about themselves, which from what I have seen most are, there are all kinds of problems in the world. Every problem that we have with human behavior is because we don’t know who we are. I don’t believe in bad people. I believe in ignorant people. It was my ego that drove me, and I have seen that same ego in other people’s behavior to varying degrees. The qualities of my ego manifest and are driven by three different motivations: validation, gratification, and justification.”
A vignette from A Vicious Cycle
Right as he sat down next to me the dog started to sniff me. “Would you sit somewhere else with that dog? It’s starting to sniff me and I don’t appreciate it.” I said this in an intense snarl so I could get my message across.
“Hey, I get to sit anywhere on this bus that I like. It’s a service animal.”
“Listen something stinks, and I actually can’t tell which one of you it is, so can you at least scoot over?” I said raising my voice!
Then Stephany sat down on his other side and took the seat I wanted him to move to, so I raised my voice even louder and said, “I can see you stroke that furry thing just like you do the pecker which is under that dress!” As I was staring him directly in the eyes.
“Hey, don’t talk about my wife that way you prick!” I guess he’d seen me in the rooms of AA before so he asked, “Who is your sponsor? Does he know that you talk to people like that?”
about transformation and perseverance
“I ran from life hiding in my imagination as a small child. That was the first time, which continued for about twenty years, a life of depression, drugs, and countless suicide attempts. My imagination was my first drug It was my first means of escaping. I escaped so I could feel good. Drinking and drugs are all about escaping, and if people are addicted to one thing it is just their emotions. That’s all drugs do, they boost pleasure centers in the brain, and all kinds of things do that, so I don’t take alcoholics and addicts as any more unique than anyone else. It is with the acknowledgement of a higher power that I began to live in what I now call reality.”
…read more here:
