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I recently watched Season One of the Disney Plus series, Loki. It’s based on the Marvel character Loki, the god of mischief. I’ve never been called a god by anybody other than me, but I have been accused many times of mischief, so I identify with the character on that level.
I thought the show was a little choppy but I ultimately found it to be quite amusing, so I give it a thumbs up.
It’s also a crucial part of where the entire Marvel Universe appears to be headed, which is a multiverse. If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of a multiverse, either Google it and spend a month trying to comprehend it. Or, the most concise description would be that a multiverse builds on the idea that perhaps there are parallel universes where versions of us all are running around leading different lives, making different choices.
That concept of the multiverse is why I am talking about Loki on a sober newsletter—because I try to always remember how the life I am currently living is a freaking miracle. If there are many simulations of my life out there in the universe, I think this variant of me, sober and mostly happy, is one of the very small percentage that have a happy ending.
I think if I had to assess my chances in retrospect, I think there is about a 50 percent chance that I didn’t get sober and I died by age 40. I think there is about a 25 percent chance that I would have kept drinking and drugging and ended up in jail or an institution.
So that means I think there is a 25 percent chance I went to rehab and got sober. But I think of that 25 percent of times I didn’t use drugs and alcohol any more, I believe about half of those lives would have been disasters. There is a version of me that got off drugs and alcohol for awhile, stayed off them, but just got dry. I think that version of me might actually be the most miserable, because I think me without drugs and alcohol, and without a program to recover, is still just a huge problem.
And as I’ve said many times, there were some moments early on in rehab where I was so, so happy to be clean and sober… but I thought maybe I didn’t need a longterm program for my sobriety. I had some good friends who’d cleaned up their drugs and alcohol, their lives improved, and they managed to stay that way without going to four meetings every week and working the steps. That sounded good to me!
So if you’re following along with my math, I think there is maybe a 10 percent chance that I end up in the place I am now: with an active sobriety program, a wonderful family, lots of good friends, a toolbox to handle the bumps in the road, enough money to pay the bills, and so on. That is an incredibly small percentage, and as I was thinking about this topic, I kept going back and forth about whether 10 percent might be too complimentary toward me. If you told me the actual chances of me getting sober and living this life were 1-in-100, I wouldn’t argue with you.
I ended up watching Loki and feeling tremendous gratitude for my sobriety. It was a really unexpected way to remember that I caught lighting in a bottle when I put the bottle down. There are lots of days where my mind wanders a bit, feels some self-pity for stuff, wish for a better life with more money and nicer kids and less a******s… then I watch a TV show and realize that I’m being the a*****e. This whole freaking thing is a gift. Let’s call it my lucky Loki life.
In case you missed it, I put together a fun mini comedy special about my 10 favorite addiction/sobriety jokes. Check it out HERE! (It’s behind a paywall)
This newsletter is a place of joy and laughter about the deadly serious business of sobriety. So, as I will often do, let me close with a joke:
An alcoholic sought help about his drinking from his doctor. The doctor's advice was, "Whenever you feel like taking a drink, have an apple instead."
The drunk protested, "Who could eat that many apples?"
(Credit: AA Grapevine, from Anonymous, November 2006)
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