Hello World of Recovery.  I’m Ronnie Earl. I’m an alcoholic.

This website is meant to celebrate the freedom found in sobriety and to explore tools for recovery from alcoholism. I have found new freedom and new happiness, as was promised.

When I was a kid, I watched the the children’s television show Electric Company. If memory serves me well, there was a skit about a detective who was supposed to be like Kojak. He talked about Who, What, Where, When, and Why (and maybe how) as he solved puzzles. This has always stuck with me as a way to approach the unknown. My plan is to use this investigative mnemonic system to introduce this website.

The Highlights

Who? I am Ronnie Earl. I was born in Mississippi in the early 1970s. My home is in Kansas. The 1980s were my formative decade. My former career was as a sous chef. I now create websites and databases and I’m educated in Information Technology. I took my first sip of alcohol in the 5th grade and my last gulp in May of 2016.

What? This website is all about using my technical skills to share what I’ve learned in my own recovery and to network with the growing digital world of recovery. I hope to help people who are thinking about quitting alcohol or are struggling.

Where? You have found this website, but I represent myself on Twitter as @_RonnieEarl and on Facebook as SobrietyandFreedom. 

When? As I write this, I am almost at the seven month mark. I hope to capture some of the brilliant madness of being a relative newcomer in my writings so that anthropologists may someday be able to explain why people quit drinking.

Why? The end purpose of this website and my social media presence is to stay sober and to help other alcoholics achieve sobriety. I feel like I might be able to help one person out there. The value of one life is incalculable. This is an amazing thing that we have started here. I hope to simply do my part.

How? I will likely write highly edited posts at first because I am nervous about looking like an idiot or boring readers. As I ease into this, you might see me having more fun and leaving some more relaxed, chain of thought posts.

My Primary Purpose

I originally wrote a 1000 word sticky post to introduce my website. As I read it for the fortieth or so time tonight, I decided to spare you. I want you to know one thing and that is why I am doing this. A realization hit me tonight that I need to be genuine, keep it simple and to the point.

Having said this, here is a paraphrase of my first blog post as an unordered list:

• Never have I felt like a normal or sane person. Things don’t seem to work for me as they do for other people.
• It’s all better now that I’ve stopped drinking! Key word here is better. It’s not rainbows and kittens.
• With all due respect, I have chosen to not refrain from talking about 12 steps groups on this website.
• 12 step groups are a great choice for many, but clearly it isn’t the only resource out there to help you get sober and in recovery.
• I use a hybrid approach centered around 12 steps, but I have sought help and answers elsewhere.
• One of my secondary goals is to foster unity between 12 step groups and other entities or communities.
• My goal is to help others achieve sobriety, especially those who are struggling or hung-up at the onset.
• A 12 step group is a great choice and it works if you are willing to work it, but it’s not the only possible path to recovery.

Plans For This Website

Writing here will help me certainly and hopefully it will help someone else out there. My plans for writing projects include a thorough study of the 12 steps and book reviews, but also to include personal stories and anecdotes. There will be posts about books that have helped me, and non-12-step programs or systems that help people achieve wellness. This will be a website that embraces recovery in all its glory. If this means that I will be irreverent, then so be it. The Big Book’s solution entails honesty from the start. May we use honesty, humility and gratitude as our guide.