>>>>My life seems so incredibly vanilla compared to some of the stuff I read here. And I think that I'm a fairly colorful character. Am I the minority or are the addicts, depressed and clinically insecure just more vocal?
>>>
>>>I don't think you're vanilla. I don't know anyone who can bake a cake like you.
>>>I just came back and read some of the things that were posted while I was gone. Tho I have simpathy for those who are fighting their demons, I don't want any part of it in my life. I like being "ordinary".
>>>
>>>If you're "ordinary", consider yourself fortunate and go do something extraordinary.
>>>
>>>Happy New Year, Jay.
>>
>>I guess I'm sort of the same. I have issues - ask anyone who is close to me - but nothing like the obvious displays I see here. Some of my demons are very dark, but very private, and that's where they should be. I've known coworkers who's day-to-day family lives seem like a bad Jeff Foxworthy joke. I know because they worked at home and I could hear it going on when we were having meetings over the phone. I just go through life trying to do the best I can. Work during the week, take our girl to school, attend recitals or plays that she's in, run to Target to get a few things, over to Home Depot to get what I need to replace the kitchen faucet, out to Macaroni Grill for dinner maybe and then clean the house on Saturday morning. Try to get to the driving range or the coffee shop to read the Sunday paper on the weekends. Once in awhile I have moments of creativity where I do a wedding cake, a painting or write a song, but mostly the other stuff. There's good and bad and lots in between. Reading some of the stuff here just makes me appreciate the mundane.
>>
>>Happy New Year to you too, Sam.
>
>In a way you have a point. I have vowed to keep my personal crap off the UT and have not managed to do so, any more than I have been able to put an end to the drinking. In this case I did reply to Victor, for several reasons. For one thing I like him and responded to his distress as I would respond to anything else bad that had befallen him. Also, he posted his message directly to me. It would have been rude of me to ignore it even if I had been so inclined, which I wasn't. There is also a sense of obligation. There are some standard readings at the beginning of every AA meeting and one of them is the Responsibility Statement. "When anyone, anywhere, reaches out for help, I want the hand of AA always to be there. And for that I am responsible."
>
>I think the concept of an online "community" is sometimes overstated. But I think it's real. Personally I have been helped greatly by the concern of members through my many screwups. You almost seem to be saying that when someone has a problem they should just keep it to themselves and not bother us with it. I'm not sure that is a community I would want to be part of.
>
>Happy new year to you, too. (Not saying that sarcastically).

I was really addressing more of the issues that people have and how I'm unable to relate, but some also that it's made public. Like Sam, I have empathy, but just have a hard time understanding it. It's not about not wanting someone to air it if that makes them feel better - I can always ignore what I don't want to read - it's more about trying to understand other people's lives. Maybe it's my ability to be comfortable in many situations; on my own, in social situations, in one-on-one communications. Like I said, I have issues, but I just do not have an understanding of the inner workings of the insecure, addicted, depressed mind. Not yours, per se, but anyone's.