Don Imus

I'm not going to break down what happened here with Don Imus. Everyone knows what happened and this story is all over various media outlets, web sites, etc. I do have a story I'd like to share though. I first started listening to Imus in 1992 when the bank I worked at said we could keep a radio at our desk if we kept it on low volume. I'm a fan of talk radio and The Imus in the Morning radio show was syndicated and the all-sports station here in the DC area had it, so I started to listen.

Imus, a recovering alcoholic and cocaine user for over twenty years, helped me at a critical time in my sobriety. How so? During that time I was wondering if I was really happy being sober. I was sober a little over three years at the time but I was struggling. For some reason I wasn't comfortable discussing it and I struggled at meetings to share thoughts. A lot of times I wouldn't say anything and would decline requests to speak. Listening to Imus and his crew kid him about his drinking days made me realize that it was ok to poke fun at yourself every now and then and take time to laugh once in awhile about some of the things that I did back in my drinking days.

One of the funnier stories Imus had involved relieving himself when he was drunk in a phone booth. I'm sure at the time, it wasn't funny but after getting help and rehabilitation, he later felt comfortable talking and joking about it before an audience of millions. One of my stories that get a lot of laughs now at meetings was when I had to stick a bumper sticker on my apartment door to make sure I was at the right place after a night of boozing on the town.

In listening to his radio show over some time, Imus did help me understand where I was in my sobriety when he would talk about his sobriety. The result was I got more comfortable with who I was becoming as my sobriety time increased and the years passed. So thanks I-Man.