There’s an old saying (law of physics?) “Under pressure, what’s on the inside comes out.” This is true of nature and of human nature. This is why I have so much respect and admiration for human beings under pressure who only bring to the frow “humanity at it’s best”. If you remember anything in life, comma become a person who under pressure exemplifies thexemplifies the best of humanity and not the worst of humanity -if you remember anything in life, remember this, “Strive to become a person who under pressure, exemplifies the best humanity has to offer, not the worst!

•Title credited to Queen/David Bowie (1981) -written by Roger Taylor/Freddie Mercury/David Bowie/John Deacon/Brian May.

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but the taking of right action in the face of it.”

Many of life’s troubles (mankind’s) can be traced to two things:

•Insanity*

•Immaturity*

*…and when you throw fear into the mix with either (or both) of the aforementioned, it’s going to be a recipe for trouble.

In Alcoholics Anonymous, oftentimes the very thing that allowed us to survive this survived our addiction is the very same thing that interferes in our recovery. “To admit complete defeat -NEVER!” To give you some idea of just how difficult It can be to come to terms with, and face one’s own fears… here is a dialog taken from the movie rocky lll:

Adrian: Can I talk to you? I want to ask you something important and I want you to tell me the truth.Rocky: What?Adrian: Why did you come here?Rocky: I just don’t want it no more.Adrian: If it’s over because you want it to be over, I’m glad.Rocky: I do.Adrian: It’s just, you’ve never quit anything since I’ve known you.Rocky: I don’t know what you want me to say. I mean, what happened? How did everything that was so good get so bad?Adrian: What’s so bad? Tell me, what?Rocky: I wrecked everything by not thinking for myself. I mean, why couldn’t Mickey tell me where I was really at right from the start? He didn’t have to carry me and lie to me and make me think I was better than I really was when I wasn’t.Adrian: He never lied.Rocky: Those fights weren’t right. They weren’t, Adrian. I never fought anybody who was in their prime. There was always some angle to hold on to the title longer than I should have had it. I mean do you understand what I’m saying here?Adrian: I understand, but you’ve got to understand that he loved you and that was his job–protecting you!Rocky: Look, but that protecting don’t help nothing. It only makes things worse. You wake up after a few years thinking you’re a winner, but you’re not. You’re really a loser. So we wouldn’t have had the title as long. So what?! At least it would’ve been real Adrian.Adrian: It was real!Rocky: Nothing is real if you don’t believe in who you are! I don’t believe in myself no more don’t you understand? When a fighter don’t believe, that’s it! He’s finished, it’s over, that’s it.Adrian: THAT’S NOT IT!!Rocky: That is it!Adrian: Why don’t you tell me the truth?!Rocky: What are you putting me through, Adrian?! You wanna know the truth? The truth is I don’t want to lose what I’ve got. In the beginning I didn’t care about what happened to me. I’d go in the ring, I’d get busted up, I didn’t care! But now there’s you, there’s the kid. I don’t want to lose what I’ve got!Adrian: What do we have that can’t be replaced? WHAT?! A house, we’ve got cars, we’ve got MONEY! We got everything but the truth. WHAT’S THE TRUTH, DAMN IT?!Rocky: I’M AFRAID! ALL RIGHT?! YOU WANT TO HEAR ME SAY IT? You want to break me down? All right, I’m afraid. For the first time in my life, I’m afraid.Adrian: I’m afraid too. There’s nothing wrong with being afraid.Rocky: There is. For me, there is.Adrian: Why? You’re human aren’t you?Rocky: Look, I don’t know what I am. All I know is I’m a liar, and because of that Mickey ain’t here no more.Adrian: You didn’t push him into anything! He was a grown man and he did what he had to do! And you have no right to feel guilty for what happened. You don’t! You were a champion, and you did what you were expected to do, and you did what I and everybody else thought you should do. And you wanna tell me that those fights weren’t real, that you were carried? Well I don’t believe it! But it doesn’t matter what I believe because you’re the one that’s got to carry that fear around inside you, afraid that everybody’s going to take things away and afraid that you’re going to be remembered as a coward, that you’re not a man anymore. Well, none of it’s true! But it doesn’t matter if I tell you. It doesn’t matter, because you’re the one that’s gotta settle it. Get rid of it! Because when all the smoke has cleared and everyone’s through chanting your name, it’s just going to be us. And you can’t live like this. We can’t live like this. Cause it’s going to bother you for the rest of your life. Look what it’s doing to you now. Apollo thinks you can do it, so do I. But you gotta want to do it for the right reasons. Not for the guilt over Mickey, not for the people, not for the title, not for money or me, but for you. Just you. Just you alone.Rocky: And if I lose?Adrian: Then you lose. But at least you lose with no excuses, no fear. And I know you can live with that.Rocky: How did you get so tough?Adrian: I live with a fighter.Rocky: I really love you. [they kiss, and Rocky holds her close] I love you.

•Title and dialogue taken from the movie “Rocky lll” (1982) -written by Sylvester Stallone. Title can also be credited to Fleetwood Mac song “I’m So Afraid” (1975) -written by Lindsay Buckingham.

To me, not drinking has been somewhat easy in comparison to “Life once we put the bottle down”. There’s an old saying in Alcoholics Anonymous “Staying sober is a lot easier than getting sober”. I guess that depends on your definition of sober. I stay sober by following the suggestions of Alcoholics Anonymous, aptly titled “The maintenance of our spiritual condition”. I look at it like this: I heard something once and it made a lot of sense to me in my own recovery. While watching one of the mixed martial arts large tournaments one year I heard a commentator make this statement: If you’re training training regime leading up to a hes been up to a tournament hes done right, it will be harder, much harder than the fight itself -as it should be! By the time you get into the ring, you will be so… (I just can’t think of that term or phrase)… old-age 🤪

That’s what we mean when we say “Not drinking is not so much a choice as a byiproduct of….”

As a younger lad, I often felt nature, God to be quite insensitive-even cruel! Then I realized watching a program one day I was once again reminded, God thinks of everything, so why would this be any different.? Shock is one of the ways in which God shows mercy amidst theBixby day-to-day trappings if life -survival out in the bush! However, there are other things going on in the world I don’t understand:

•Things only God Himself can understand

•Things man himself is responsible for and God is waiting on to change

•Things satan has a hand in

•Things I personally can and should act upon -butt have yet to!

Quite often, emotion seemed to have a mind of their own. We like, and dislike people, seemingly without a choice in the matter – scam-artists and phobics appear to have a clearer understanding of this than the rest of us. Men, and women who put on the charm in order to get what they want seems to be an issue for some as well.

•Title credited to Jonathan Cain/Steve Perry/Neal Schon (1986 song of same name).

Some great family movies I thought you might enjoy include:

•Marney (1963) Alfred Hitchcock

•Three Wishes (1995) Patrick Green/Elizabeth Anderson

•Andre (1994) Harry Goodridge/Lew Dietz (George T. Miller -Director/Dana Baratta – screenplay).

I’ve often thought 🤔, “God doesn’t get nearly enough credit for His song writing!”

•You Light up My Life (Joseph Brooks)

•Love Is The Answer (Todd Rundgren)

•I’m Yoyr Captain/Closer to Home (Mark Farner)

°Calypso (John Denver)

•Carry On Wayward Son (Kansas)

•Wildfire/What’s Forever For (Michael Martin Murphey)

This evening I was watching the movie “The Greatest Story Ever Told” by George B. Steven’s. And I’m simply amazed at how people think they can outwit God or that they are more powerful or above God. When they tried to kill the baby Jesus and Bethlehem…. Or people people trying to discredit Jesus Jesus by insinuating His affair or marriage to Mary Magdalene!* My 1st thought is that if God did anything, He did it for the right reasons -and who are we to stand in judgment!. My 2nd thought is, who are we of limited knowledge, understanding, and moral standing, to presume to understand God’s ways, let alone stand in judgement of them! Human-beings!!!

*Even though I have it on good authority that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were never married/intimately involved -what would be so wrong about having a bunch of baby Jesus is running around in the world today?

•Title taken from the movie “The Greatest Story Ever Told” by George B Stevens (1965).

People sometimes ask “Why do bad things happen to good people?” “I don’t know. Why do good things happen to bad people?” My initial thought 🤔: “Maybe the people we think are good -aren’t so good; and maybe the people we think are bad -aren’t so bad”. Or 🤔, maybe we’ve simply gotten God all wrong (Conversations with God).

I remember coming to a and early on, two things stood out: We often seem to get around the around the entire room right at the top of the hour: I was hitting a lot of meetings early on and I would hear quite often, the same things in meetings in succession.

•Title is an excerpt from the movie “Rocky lll” (written by Sylvester Stallone).

I told a friend of mine one day “I’m 56 years old and I’ve been dealing with alcoholism for 57 years”. He looked at me rather puzzled. I went on to explain, “Well if you include the time spent in my mother’s belly…” Suddenly, the color in his face seemed to return.☺