[RavenSong]

Originally Posted by Janeytwo

As I was reading your two posts about elephants I recalled a time in AlAnon when I'd had a particularly nasty encounter with my family over my brother M's drinking. He had just gotten out of rehab and his wife and a couple of people in my family took him out to the bar to celebrate!!

Grrr... I hate those stories, just hate them. They hit too close to home with me. My second stepmom used to gripe constantly about my dad's drinking. He was a hard-core alcoholic up until the day he died. He'd go on the wagon from time to time, but would never go to AA. Anyway, my stepmom would bring home bottles of booze whenever he was trying to stay sober. It used to tick me off to no end.

When my dad got lung cancer, my stepsister got angry with me when I wouldn't buy him any cigarettes. I know that it was probably too late to matter in my dad's case, but I just couldn't buy them, know what I mean? What a dysfunctional family, eh?

It's funny how many divorces happen after someone starts going to AA, like within the first year of getting sober. From what I've seen, it's like the enabler doesn't like losing his/her power in the relationship once the alcoholic starts working the program and becomes sober.

Originally Posted by Janeytwo

One of my favorite sponsors was there. A little old lady with years under her belt. I remember saying to her that everyone in my family (and on the planet for that matter) should be forced at gunpoint to sit in a chair and then be tied with rope to that chair, then have their mouths sealed with duct tape. Then they should be forced to sit there for a year while a member read to them from the Big Books. I was willing of course to take the duct tape off in order to feed and water them.

My theory was that sooner or later they'd friggin have to learn something!!!!

She just laughed and said, "Yeah. They'd learn that they don't like duct tape."

I love the old-timers in AA and AlAnon. They've seen so much crap, and they've heard just about every line that a newcomer can think of. A lot of the old-timers' retorts are real gems!

Originally Posted by Janeytwo

The elephant in my family is pink; a pink alcoholic elephant with hiccups; the kind you see in old Looney Toon reruns.

I was talking to my mom recently and mentioned something about my dad's alcoholism. She said, "oh, your dad was an alcoholic? I never knew that..." I suddenly felt like I was living in another universe when she said that! I said, "um, yeah, Mom. That's why he lost every job he ever had. That's why he went through three families. That's why he beat up his wives." And then my mom said, "oh, well, at least he never beat me up." At that point, I decided to drop the subject, Janey. My dad used to beat my mom up all the time when I was a little kid. If I tried to stop him, he'd turn on me, so I learned quickly to just stay in my bedroom when he'd been drinking.

The pink elephant not only took up all the space in the room, it literally sat on us. Denial is a really strange monster. Sigh....