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Craig Whalley 62, Male United States: Share

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Craig Whalley and bean4peas are now friends

November 5

Craig Whalley added a photo

Craig, 2009-2

October 22

Craig Whalley commented on Dale Phelps's blog post 'Days of our lives'

Dale, I was married for 16 years to a woman who wasn't addicted but had serious psychological problems. I stayed in the marriage using your exact logic -- she wouldn't make it on her own and I wouldn't be able to handle the guilt when she crashed, o…

September 18

Lorne Bergson commented on Craig Whalley's blog post 'Sobriety is an acquired skill'

Sorry to differ with you. I'm so ...subversive. I used to use with my piano teacher. That's why I have difficulty playing my synthesizer now, even though I have a piano teacher's degree from the Royal Conservatory. Anyway, it starts with a LOVE OF M…

August 13

Craig Whalley left a comment for Richard Zink

August 12

Lorne Bergson left a comment for Craig Whalley

August 12

Craig Whalley left a comment for Lorne Bergson

August 12

Craig Whalley and Lorne Bergson are now friends

August 12

Profile Information

Hometown:

Port Angeles, WA USA

Relationship Status:

Single

How long clean and sober

Since August, 2001

About Me:

I'm in my extremely late 50's, living in Port Angeles, WA, where, since 1971, I've owned and operated The Odyssey Bookshop. I'm also a convenor for a couple of LifeRing Online groups -- LSRsafe and LifeRingSoberLiving.

Looking for?

As I near retirement, and freedom from the work-a-day world, I look for what comes next: travel? romance? adventure?

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Sobriety is an acquired skill

To a child, playing the piano might seem like it would be easy. After all, it's just a matter of poking the keys with the right fingers at the right times. In fact, of course, playing the piano reasonably well takes considerable knowledge and huge amounts of practice.

So it is with sobriety. For people like me, it doesn't come naturally. Drinking or using, now THAT comes without any effort at all! But sobriety must be learned. And like all learning, the process can be very difficult.

When I wa… Continue

Posted on May 27, 2009 at 1:16pm — 2 Comments

There but for the grace of ...

I live in a small town, and the local paper had a front page story this morning that resonated strongly with me. A young woman was sentenced to 12 years in prison for vehicular homicide for a crash that occurred while she was driving drunk. She had had an argument with her boyfriend and drove off, soon hitting another car, killing a young man.

I recalled all the times I had fled an argument with my then-spouse and driven drunk. Perhaps not as drunk and perhaps not as recklessly, but definitely… Continue

Posted on May 21, 2009 at 4:34pm — 1 Comment

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At 6:09pm on August 12, 2009, Lorne Bergson said…: You think it's good stuff, really? I sort of thought it was relebllious, and as Marty inimitably would said "subversive". What I had been trying to do was to get it into the ongoing discussion on Joseph's to elicit feedback from fellow Buddhists LR-nicks (or whatever we call ourselves). I wouldn't dare put it on those blogs that people get thrown out permanenly from.
Lorne
PS I'm impressed more than one member took the time to read and comment.

At 11:23am on August 12, 2009, Lorne Bergson said…: Empowering Dr. Jekyll...
First of all I am new to blogs and social networks and am not quite sure just where where my words will appear or just who, if anyone, will read them. How to contact Joseph, etc.
I do not wish to offend anyone, indeed I discovered the very existence of Lifering on a site professing to be unabashedly an A.A. bashing site. I wonder how many years down the road there will be Lifering bashing sites. I am in the midst of convening Lifering in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and have had many e-mail encounters, with the kind members of Lifering, even with Marty N. himself, regarding the nature of the ego and how this conflicts with my Dharma teachings. Needless to say, like everyone, I would be expected to keep all this to myself at meetings, whenever these will materialize. So I am intrigued that people only talk about shamatha (meditation) when blogging about Buddhism whereas as the heart of it is the fact that centuries before the birth of modern western dualistic Psychology Buddhism had completed the study of the growth of the ego ("abhidharma") and came to the conclusion that the self, like everything else, has no inherent self-existence, that it is not an "entity", but rather interdependent. Am I allowed to say that or will I be banned? Then I read and try to follow how the sober self is striving to come to the fore, and what's worse that this very schizy scenario does not apparently constitute a "disease"! I have a number of contacts that i communicate with in Lifering, but I seem to have worn them all out and I really need to find someone to share this with. I can not and will not go back to where I came from. We can only go forward. And the sooner I get it cleared up the best for all.
Pardon my ignorance. Am I supposed to sign it. GIve my e-mail address?
Lorne
PS According to Wikipedia, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a kind of morality tale, insofar as poor of Dr. Jekyll instigated the whole thing by taking that potion in the first place. An experiment, they say.