Comments on: As Much As You Can

By: Lyle

Lyle — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 17:50:20 +0000

Happy the man blessed with friends who listened to him rage and weep and love him still.

By: Aubrey

Aubrey — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 02:16:20 +0000

Thanks for your post.
I am not an alcoholic, but I was affected by alcoholism, as one of my parents is an alcoholic, and I grew up around it.
For “adult children of alcoholics” who are in recovery from the effects of alcoholism, there is a progression from “hurting” to “healing” to “helping.” Some have been hurt very deeply and take a long time to heal. As we heal, we become liberated from “the burden of self.” We no longer need to protect our false self as much as we gain more confidence and become more in touch with our true self.
I think this relates to the process of coming to terms with one’s sexuality also. For a lot of persons, there is an initial phase of acting out, playing a role, which is followed by an awakening to the true self.
Anyway, thanks again for your post.

By: KK

KK — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 21:11:02 +0000

Can’t help but think of “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” The “alien, burdensome life” becomes an albatross, and after your ordeal it was as though you held people with a “glittering eye” to tell your story. Maybe when it is more confessional than cautionary the “glittering eye” phase must be just a phase. The wonderful “half-glint” in your father’s eye is something else altogether, I suspect:)

By: Danya

Danya — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 15:56:54 +0000

Brilliant! This is so applicable to so many situations. When I was suffering with infertility I had a friend that said “well, you’ll stop feeling bad when you decide to stop feeling bad.” At the time I thought it was so callous, but later, I realized that I was, in fact, so very tired of feeling bad. We went on to adopt but that one poignant moment of actually deciding not to let the pain define me was a pinnacle in my conversion.

By: Gabriel

Gabriel — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 00:50:55 +0000

Good stuff. A bit convicting, too, as lately I have — for lots of reasons, both bad and good, I suspect — been reevaluating my habit (heretofore) of living out of the closet. I certainly don’t think it wrong to do so, but I feel like I have this need to talk about being gay all the time, and it’s really boring and annoying *to me,* so maybe I need to take stock of my narcissism at any rate.

By: TN

TN — Sun, 29 Jul 2012 18:22:42 +0000

This is very good – thanks.

By: Paige

Paige — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 21:00:51 +0000

What a great post… Reminds me of a quote I heard recently that humility doesn’t mean thinking less of ourselves, it means thinking about ourselves less… There can be an inordinate amount of *pride* wrapped up in our suffering. I’m glad you posted it all too in these past months, but the way you constantly press on to the next thing God is teaching you gives me courage to do the same…

By: Theresa Zoe

Theresa Zoe — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 18:38:09 +0000

Poignant, as usual. Hit home with me because I used to respond quite as you describe Hank responding to his sobriety. In fact, you inspired me to write my own blog post.

By: Christina

Christina — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 18:16:01 +0000

Beautiful post, Steve! The whole dragging-around-the-dead-weight-of-your-life idea really resonates with me. I can always tell if I’m still suffering (vs. actually healing) if I still want to tell everyone about it all. the. time.

Also, I really appreciate footnote #3, especially since it’s GMH’s birthday today.