Steely

I love the Serenity prayer, Worried. It always brings me great peace. Allows me, often, to continue.

My thoughts on the notion 'choice' always has me return to some poor person in Madagascar eating locusts for supper. The last supper. What choice is there, there? None really. And even the acceptance falls flat and hollow. The parameters of starvation. Choose a locust, any locust.

We are lucky to have made the choice to stop drinking, before all choice was removed Worried, and I'm so happy you have decided to take this path. Happy for me too.

And we can choose again tomorrow, wiser, as result of the days that have gone before.

Dostoyevksy rocks!

MrPL

Hi Steely,

I used to think the same until I read “The Choice” by Edith Eger (name of the book and the thread are absolutely coincidental).

Not sure you heard of her, but she is a truly amazing person with a hell of a story to tell. Not sobriety related per se, but I definitely recommend it.

Steely

I haven't heard of her MrPL, but will definitely give her a go.

Anyone with a user name MrPL, and bottle of milk as avatar could not possibly make anything other than good recommendation.

Have a great day MrPL.

Worried14

Steely:"I love the Serenity prayer, Worried. It always brings me great peace. Allows me, often, to continue."

It's funny really, I've never used it very much. I find it difficult to apply to my day to day life, but thats a whole something else.

I had a look at Notes from Underground , you can get it free on line along with study notes etc which are handy. It's not something I could just pick up and say Ahhhh Yes I see what he means, I have to read it and read it again. I came to the conclusion that it wasn't going to help me in my sobriety so I doubt I'll be reading it again in the near future, but I know it's there if I want to go back to it.

Interesting thread though

Steely

A very interesting thread Worried. Wish I were a better philosopher. They reckon it's easy to get a 'pass' in Philosophy, but very difficult to obtain Distinction. I think I'll remain a peasant. Passing through.

I don't use the Serenity Prayer all that often, but sometimes when the going gets rough, it comes to mind, and helps me when I start to turn into freaky Steely. Takes me to the gentle places. Acceptance. Serenity. Jazz like that.

I think I've read all of Dosoyevsky's work, including Notes from Underground. I think The Idiot is my favourite, though it's hard to choose.

Drinking got in the way of my reading, and there is so much to read, and so little time. Better get cracking before it's too late.

I reckon it's great that we are sober, and can even begin to discuss such matters.

"It takes a worried man, to sing a worried song." "I'm worried now, but I won't be worried long." - Pete Seeger,but goes back earlier, I think.

Sobriety holds, and reveals, more things than I ever imagined.

Have a great night.








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MrPL

Hey DriGuy - how s your reading going? Just finished it here, found a few more parallels with addiction, this idea of fabricated reality resonates with addicted me and the hundreds of narratives I told myself to justify it.

DriGuy

The book is still in transit. It didn't ship until yesterday, and it's scheduled to be here on July 6 (USPS). I assume it will be here sooner, because it's currently less than 400 miles from here, but maybe the 4th of July will slow it down. It was so long ago that I read it, I can't comment on any of your thoughts, especially as they relate to alcoholism, because my drinking was not out of control back then. I just remember identifying with so much of that character in a lot of negative ways. While I'm reading it, I can get back to you, and comment on it more.

Worried14

I'm inclined to think that we are like rivers on our way to the sea. We take a lot of twists and turns to get there because thats just the way it is. It looks like we're making choices but perhaps we're not making a choice any more that a river does. You pick up a book because you path comes across it, you react to that book because thats the nature of your river and so you carry on flowing.
That's how I feel my life is anyway (at this point in time, though I may change my mind)