What's something you learned in the last 24 hours?
(if you need to narrow it down, what is the most life-relevant thing you learned or realized)
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one of the cofounders of Alcoholics Anonymous, Bill Wilson, asked his family for 3 shots of whiskey on his deathbed when he was dying of emphysema, and/but they didn't give it to him. he had been 36 years sober
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that's remarkable, both that he asked, and his family didn't provide... huh. thanks for sharing
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yea if you look it up it's kind of a scissor even in the AA community. some people are like "jeez, if you're about to die, what does it matter" while others are like "no weakness!! good that they protected his legacy" etc
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what i get out of it is just “huh, AA doesn’t work that well”
with better technique imo people wouldn’t even want to on their deathbed
the whole problem is with framing reaching for the drink as “weakness”; it’s fundamentally an exiling move, you’re othering the part of you that sees the drink as the best or only option for dealing with some shit
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exiling imposes continual costs, you continually need to edit the exile out of your awareness, meanwhile it does not and cannot die, it just skulks in the shadows growing hairy and wild until maybe one day it comes back as you lay dying
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yea this is my instinct as well. respect to the AA for their accomplishments but i'm in the school of "do not frame yourself in terms of what you do not want to be"
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Oh man, I really disagree! The problem AA is made to address isn't *drinking alcohol,* it's *alcoholism-* drinking in ways that diminish your quality of life, your relationships, etc. If your life is ending, no risk of alcoholism.
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I feel really sad about this story. I have this vibe of a guy wanting to call up an old friend, who he couldn't hang out with because things were just too much when they hung out, and being denied that
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