RRP 126 — Ben M. / Triumph Over Trials, Part 1: Revisited — From Addiction to the Courtroom

One Boy, One Fox, One Glass of Wine. And a Comeback He Never Saw Coming.

"I met a fox on the way to school. He got me curious about taking a detour. And before I knew it, I had a donkey tail."

That's how Ben M. describes what happened when he was 13. He grew up the only boy in a big Hispanic family in El Paso, Texas, spoiled and loved, surrounded by three older sisters who treated him like their favorite toy. He got anything he wanted. Then, in a single year, everything shifted. First pot. First blackout, gin and orange juice, 13 hours gone, waking up having wet himself. First time meeting men off the internet, right after his family got AOL. He came out at 14. Skipped school. Found adult bookstores. The fox had shown up, and Ben followed.

What we love about Ben's story is how honestly he tells it. He doesn't dress up the chaos. At 18 he moved to New York City. September 11th happened weeks after he arrived, and the terror of it actually scared him sober for a while. He went to community college, did well, transferred to the University of Texas at Austin. But by the time he got to law school he was a daily drinker, Franzia wine and Golden Girls, suicidal in blackouts. His family had an intervention. He went to his first AA meeting and bought a bottle of wine on the way home. He wasn't done yet.

The bottom kept dropping. A DUI. A major collision. Jail. He lost his law license. He woke up in a psych ward twice in one week, and the second time, handcuffed to a bed, something in him finally shifted. He got sober for three and a half years. Went to South America to teach English. Then, on a flight to San Francisco, he had one glass of wine. He doesn't remember getting to the hotel. He barely remembers the next three days at all, just bathhouses, strangers, and a cab driver screaming at him to get out.

Today Ben has over six years sober. He's a practicing lawyer with a restored license, married to a man Julie actually knew first from MCC Church, and he and Julie are Sunday night meeting partners. She's the Zoom host, he's the in-person secretary. "We have never stood each other up," Julie says.

Next week Ben comes back for an update. He'll tell us what happened when his sponsor said, "Sweetie, I don't know what else I can tell you," and how Ben sat with that discomfort until the fever broke. He prayed for ways to be useful, and three men asked him to sponsor them, one after another. He talks about seeing the world with new eyes, and about promises that actually started coming true. We don't want you to miss it.

But first, listen to where it all started. This is the episode that stayed in our top five for over a year. If you haven't heard it, you need to. And if you have, it's worth hearing again before next week.

🎧 Listen: https://mdcr1.com/126 | 📖 Blog: https://mdcr1.com/126b | 📬 Newsletter: https://mdcr1.com/newsletter

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