Originally Posted by bbhero
Originally Posted by JeffKeryk
I have been taught to judge not. Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these...
Don't judge a man until you have walked a mile in his moccasins.
From the Joker movie:
"If it was ME lying in the street you'd all just walk over me."
One time, a guy asked me for a buck in a parking lot. I said, "Sure man..." Gave him a lousy dollar and asked, "If you don't mind, what are you gonna do with it?"
He said this and that, had to do this, etc. Of course I knew who he was; he was me.
I tiold him if I was him I hurry up and go get a beer.
He said, "Yeah, man." And tried to give me back the money.
I told him, "It's OK. Do what you gotta do."
"And if you ever wanna change, we will be waiting for you in AA. There are meetings everywhere."
For me, I know I had to drink every last one to get to the last one. Every one.
I hope he made it.
Overall ^^^^
I agree...
My father was a high functioning alcoholic for a good number of years.... He managed really quite well at his job and got promoted numerous times.
The hardest things I have ever had to do was to stand up in front of 580 people plus him and share some very serious thoughts with him and everyone else... My father did not need a hand striking home down at that time. He needed a hand up... I remember saying into that microphone, "no matter how far you have fallen or walked away, you are not beyond forgiveness, love and mercy". I was talking to him... I handed the microphone over to another person and walked outside the church... I was in tears candidly. I walked around the outside of the church and came in the opposite side doorway. Strangely enough... Amongst filled seating everywhere... A place was open right next to my father. I walked over and sat down beside him. He had tears in his eyes... I only saw my father like that maybe 5 times ever. I grabbed his hand and just held it. Later in the parking lot he told me he was proud of me and that I did a good job in there. I knew I had reached him somewhere somehow.. Just a day or so later I called him and he was as sober as I have heard him in years and years. I know he was really trying to stop drinking on his own... I also knew he could not do that in all likelihood. He did not make it. He never did...
My father was a good, good man in many ways... The drinking just hid that person more and more with time.
I did all I could do within my own abilities. That is all I could have done. My father did know that without question I loved him. It was just a hard circumstance dealing with him a lot of the time.
My father avoided being a person on the street drinking all the time by just a matter of luck and happenstance and a few right choices in his life.
My grandfather was a functional alcoholic (quart and a half a day of Beam) most of his life. Long as he did his job well (he did), his employer didn't care how much he drank.
He drank himself to death, by choice, knowing exactly what he was doing. (Self-medicating severe PTSD.)