Endigar 1043
From Courage to Change of Sep 24:
An Al-Anon friend says, ”I have a tendency to think of my experience with alcoholism as an epic, technicolor movie, an extravaganza with my name in lights on the marquee, but it’s not really like that. It’s really just home movies.” From time to time I have shared my friend’s exaggerated vision, though of course when I did, the name in lights was my own.
I came to this program with a story to tell that seemed to splash across every inch of a very wide screen. I told it and told it, until one day I noticed that I was sitting in a room with others, showing home movies.
Today I feel happy to be there as part of the show, but my role has changed. I am no longer the martyr, bravely sacrificing myself to the cold, cruel world of melodrama. Realism has taken over. My role is important, but not unique, and I don’t expect to see it in lights.
Today’s Reminder
Al-Anon has given me an opportunity to share my home movies with others. My situation is neither the best nor the worst. Although I am unique in some ways, I am more like others than I ever suspected. I will appreciate this sense of fellowship today.
“…as we learn to place our problem in its true perspective, we find it loses its power to dominate our thoughts and our lives.” ~ Suggested Al-Anon/Alateen Welcome
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My life is not a technicolor epic; it is a series of “home movies” stitched into a patchwork of humanity. To inflate myself as the tragic hero is another disguise for fear. This does not mean shrinking into silence or timidity. My refusal to exaggerate is not weakness but strength. The raw voice of my ethos depends on reality, not on melodrama. It is because I am no longer the martyr that I can speak plainly, iconoclastically, with the defiance of one who no longer needs to perform.
I can step out of the spotlight and discover freedom in not being the centerpiece. When I reject the addiction to applause or victimhood, I recover the purest form of rebellion: living my truth without needing a stage. My freedom is not a reaction against others—it is my refusal to live as their puppet. I refuse to be consumed by performance, or by the crowd’s gaze. I stand rooted, blood-bound to truth.
When I stop inflating my problems into epics, they lose their power to dominate me. I see myself as part of a chorus. The chorus is not a diminishment but a revelation. It is a field of voices, a battlefield of mythologies, and my voice enters as one among many, sharpened and unafraid. I claim my individuality not by towering over others, but by standing beside them, fully seen, fully heard.
I do not need to be the martyr or the hero, but neither will I be erased. My freedom is not in the spotlight nor in the shadows—it is in the refusal to live falsely.
Daily Reprieve 
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