Oct 9, 2023·edited Nov 5, 2023Liked by Corey Smith
My respect for your sobriety.
Freedom is scary, but worth the price.
Whatever your religion, make friends from a different religion.
Whatever your politics, make friends who differ.
Whatever your favorite book, find someone who hates it.
Find the humanity in all, that you may accept your darkest secret as a much a part of you as your greatest ideals. With the help of the ultimate source of all that is most good, you will then be able to face any fear without the temptation of artificial courage.
The Act by Corey Smith is a well written thoughtful piece. - My musings - I was beginning to think I wasn't a good fit after reading 2 other essays. Then I encountered The Act. - Corey, I appreciate this brief glimpse into your journey so far. Gaining writing skill is a long path and learning how to deal with voices from the past is extremely difficult. - I recommend Jon Acuff's light-hearted and helpful book Soundtracks, especially the audio, read by author. - - - In honor of my brother I have decided to become a paid subscriber. Jim lost his battle with alcoholism when he could not separate from the friends and habits that accompanied his drinking. He threatened suicide many time but in the end a brain aneurism took him at age 56. I miss him and I wish he could have learned to go beyond the 6 months he stayed sober. In the name of SW Minnesota regional artist, James Dahl, 1958-2012, I wish you well.
A very powerful read. I like the Updike quote. A very wise girlfriend once said to me that we're the embodiment of everyone we've every one we've ever met.
Oct 9, 2023·edited Oct 9, 2023Liked by Corey Smith
Extra comment: shocked how many mentioned "blue collar" as if a shameful part of their background.
Challenge to all: If for only one hour, all the blue collar workers disappeared and the next day all the intellectuals with proper white collar employment disappeared, whose return would be most appreciated by the world? Whose absence would be least noticed?
Now I see how you got where you are. That Updike quite reminds me we are all performing. What we show and perceive are just mere marks on what is actually happening. This reminds me of how human we are all. All wrestling with the same question - who am I?
Great read. It was, to be honest, like reading part of my own life as I am going on six years sober, having drank away 10 years. Congrats on how far you’ve come. I always remind myself that the idea of who I am is almost like clay, molded slightly each day by myself and the world around me.
I came across your substack account from your subscription request (thank you for supporting my art ). I love sharing my interests with new people through this amazing platform. I deeply enjoyed your essay. You have a talent to make the uncomfortable seem easy. Congratulations on five years of sobriety. Celebrate yourself for choosing acceptance over avoidance. For writing instead of blaming. For turning pain into art. Poetry is medicine isn't it?
I am trying to figure out how a person who never read became so well read in five years? I would love to motivate my husband and sister to read so they could experience so many other worlds, cultures, view points, etc. I have been an avid reader for as long as I can remember. In our family it was just my mother and me (the oldest) the younger two and my father never read. My son is an avid reader thank goodness. I want so bad to share so many things with my husband and sister, but telling them just doesn’t equal the experience of putting yourself in someone else’s shoes.
When my identity was 'being a young writer,' I claimed to like the Beats. Henry Miller was not a Beat, but I pretended at admiring him, even as I had never really read much of his work.
Now I just write. I wish you well (achieving the fullness of your being, as opposed to acting out identities.)
CBT does feel like some sort of coercive ape training, but then that's a pretty good description of therapy in general. Self-deception, -care, -awareness, -love, -loathing... We act like they are all separate but the stream of consciousness feels like all of them simultaneously... Enjoying your words they are well put.
I don’t think Updike is correct. I rather prefer Joan Didion’s take...”I think we are well-advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind's door at 4 a.m. of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends.”
Such amazing “feels” from this! First I congratulate you on your multiple years of Sobriety!! It is never finished, a work in progress, to continue on so many trips around the sun. The only people who may not get the concept of it never being finished are those who have never felt the tremors, the depth of how far we have gone in order to reach a day, an evening or a MOMENT to do without that Monkey we have carried on our back for far too long.
As one who was not a drinker but a “speed freak”, it must be difficult when the “drug” of choice is something which is advertised and shoved down our collective throats constantly.
At the first AA meeting I thought the drinkers looked down us Druggies as the “lowlifes” of the addiction world. But of course in my case it felt most of the world looked down me.
After becoming clean, I gained so much clarity at first, then as days went by I realized becoming clean was not a joyful thing to those who had never ventured over to the Wild Side.
Being clean for me has lasted beyond two decades, but I can honestly say if a hit of speed or a line of coke, Meth, ice was so readily available I mostly certainly would have faltered. This far along my clean path I doubt I would trip, yet I cannot say for certain.
Another word of congratulations- finishing Tropic of Capricorn! I have read Anna Karenina, the Brothers Karamazov and a host of large novels but Tropic of Capricorn! I am unsure of why I found it so difficult, but right on Corey!
As usual I write more on the Substack of others than my own, but Bravo & congrats on being YOU! ✌🏻
My respect for your sobriety.
Freedom is scary, but worth the price.
Whatever your religion, make friends from a different religion.
Whatever your politics, make friends who differ.
Whatever your favorite book, find someone who hates it.
Find the humanity in all, that you may accept your darkest secret as a much a part of you as your greatest ideals. With the help of the ultimate source of all that is most good, you will then be able to face any fear without the temptation of artificial courage.
May your words be a light unto all your readers.
The Act by Corey Smith is a well written thoughtful piece. - My musings - I was beginning to think I wasn't a good fit after reading 2 other essays. Then I encountered The Act. - Corey, I appreciate this brief glimpse into your journey so far. Gaining writing skill is a long path and learning how to deal with voices from the past is extremely difficult. - I recommend Jon Acuff's light-hearted and helpful book Soundtracks, especially the audio, read by author. - - - In honor of my brother I have decided to become a paid subscriber. Jim lost his battle with alcoholism when he could not separate from the friends and habits that accompanied his drinking. He threatened suicide many time but in the end a brain aneurism took him at age 56. I miss him and I wish he could have learned to go beyond the 6 months he stayed sober. In the name of SW Minnesota regional artist, James Dahl, 1958-2012, I wish you well.
A very powerful read. I like the Updike quote. A very wise girlfriend once said to me that we're the embodiment of everyone we've every one we've ever met.
Extra comment: shocked how many mentioned "blue collar" as if a shameful part of their background.
Challenge to all: If for only one hour, all the blue collar workers disappeared and the next day all the intellectuals with proper white collar employment disappeared, whose return would be most appreciated by the world? Whose absence would be least noticed?
“Ther human spirit when healed, nurtured and developed is capable of far more than the mind or sub conscious mind can imagine to ever do”
Now I see how you got where you are. That Updike quite reminds me we are all performing. What we show and perceive are just mere marks on what is actually happening. This reminds me of how human we are all. All wrestling with the same question - who am I?
Great read. It was, to be honest, like reading part of my own life as I am going on six years sober, having drank away 10 years. Congrats on how far you’ve come. I always remind myself that the idea of who I am is almost like clay, molded slightly each day by myself and the world around me.
Hi Corey
I came across your substack account from your subscription request (thank you for supporting my art ). I love sharing my interests with new people through this amazing platform. I deeply enjoyed your essay. You have a talent to make the uncomfortable seem easy. Congratulations on five years of sobriety. Celebrate yourself for choosing acceptance over avoidance. For writing instead of blaming. For turning pain into art. Poetry is medicine isn't it?
You are a crossroads
A confluence
A bubble within a boil of thought
A collage of others and events and stories
An amalgam of place and time and chance
A vertex of the infinite lattice
A witness, a mirror, a turn of the spiral
An antenna amid frequencies abyssal
There is no separation
No exceptional autonomy
No exclusionary destiny
There is no you
Without all else
I am trying to figure out how a person who never read became so well read in five years? I would love to motivate my husband and sister to read so they could experience so many other worlds, cultures, view points, etc. I have been an avid reader for as long as I can remember. In our family it was just my mother and me (the oldest) the younger two and my father never read. My son is an avid reader thank goodness. I want so bad to share so many things with my husband and sister, but telling them just doesn’t equal the experience of putting yourself in someone else’s shoes.
“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;” You know what they say about the truth. If it’s too hot in the kitchen, get out. Would love a part 2.
When my identity was 'being a young writer,' I claimed to like the Beats. Henry Miller was not a Beat, but I pretended at admiring him, even as I had never really read much of his work.
Now I just write. I wish you well (achieving the fullness of your being, as opposed to acting out identities.)
CBT does feel like some sort of coercive ape training, but then that's a pretty good description of therapy in general. Self-deception, -care, -awareness, -love, -loathing... We act like they are all separate but the stream of consciousness feels like all of them simultaneously... Enjoying your words they are well put.
I don’t think Updike is correct. I rather prefer Joan Didion’s take...”I think we are well-advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind's door at 4 a.m. of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends.”
What you suffer does not define you.
What you accept or reject from life is not who you are.
Where you are going is not who you will be.
Such amazing “feels” from this! First I congratulate you on your multiple years of Sobriety!! It is never finished, a work in progress, to continue on so many trips around the sun. The only people who may not get the concept of it never being finished are those who have never felt the tremors, the depth of how far we have gone in order to reach a day, an evening or a MOMENT to do without that Monkey we have carried on our back for far too long.
As one who was not a drinker but a “speed freak”, it must be difficult when the “drug” of choice is something which is advertised and shoved down our collective throats constantly.
At the first AA meeting I thought the drinkers looked down us Druggies as the “lowlifes” of the addiction world. But of course in my case it felt most of the world looked down me.
After becoming clean, I gained so much clarity at first, then as days went by I realized becoming clean was not a joyful thing to those who had never ventured over to the Wild Side.
Being clean for me has lasted beyond two decades, but I can honestly say if a hit of speed or a line of coke, Meth, ice was so readily available I mostly certainly would have faltered. This far along my clean path I doubt I would trip, yet I cannot say for certain.
Another word of congratulations- finishing Tropic of Capricorn! I have read Anna Karenina, the Brothers Karamazov and a host of large novels but Tropic of Capricorn! I am unsure of why I found it so difficult, but right on Corey!
As usual I write more on the Substack of others than my own, but Bravo & congrats on being YOU! ✌🏻