Come This Far with Chris Taylor

We all know about the first denial associated with addiction. The person that hasn’t been using substances or engaging in troubling behavior for very long. They are able to maintain some normalcy and can even hide their addiction. As they spiral downward, everyone around them can see what is happening; they are clearly addicted. But denial is real, and the person is quite literally blinded to the fact that their lives have become unmanageable and they need help. Interventions are staged, loved ones are brutally honest and usually, the individual is able to come to grips with the truth. They can admit that they are sick and can’t do it alone. They accept help. It’s a major step in the process of recovery. Some even say it’s as much as half the battle. The individual abstains from the addiction and seeks help. In the absence of their addiction, they have been able to find clarity. They gain tools to cope and the soul that seemed to be dead or greatly diminished returns to full health. It’s a miracle. Loved ones often say things like, “The real (enter name here) is back!” The person who was out of control earlier has now attained newfound happiness. They make amends, gain back trust, embark down a path of healing and restoration of their lives and families. They have triumphed. It’s human nature to want to declare victory and rest from the battle. Bask in the glory of overcoming great adversity. But what happens when a year or more into sobriety, something happens and relapse occurs? Shame comes screaming back. “I’ve been through so much, I’ve overcome so much, I’ve earned so much trust back, I don’t know what happened, but I’m ok. I’ll get back on the right path. Nobody needs to know I took some steps backward.” “I’m strong, I know how to recover, I’ve done it before, I can do it again.” “What would people think if they knew I had slipped up again? I don’t need help with this because I’ve learned all there is to know about addiction, seeking help now would only bring negative consequences, I’ll double my efforts in private. I can do it alone.” This second great denial is more dangerous than the first, it’s often more fatal. It’s why almost all of the people you know who have overdosed and died seem to have been doing so well. They had achieved some long term recovery. They had figured it out. It’s a shock. It wouldn’t have been a shock years earlier when everyone could tell they were struggling. But it’s so surprising now. That person was stuck in the second great denial. Unable to admit that they once again, needed some help. They couldn’t do it alone. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/comethisfar/support

Take The Quiz Here: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/09/08/opinion/republicans-democrats-parties.html America’s two-party system is broken. Democrats and Republicans are locked in an increasingly destructive partisan struggle that has produced gridlock and stagnation on too many critical issues — most urgently, the pandemic and climate change. There is no reasonable or timely way to fix this broken system. But there is an alternative: more parties. It is not so hard to imagine a six-party system — and it would not even require a constitutional amendment. Each party represents a different portion of the electorate, not only ideologically but also by economic class and political engagement. There is no “center” party here. That is because there are very few voters in the middle across all issues. Many readers who consider themselves centrist might also think of themselves as socially liberal/fiscally moderate or socially moderate/fiscally conservative. They will find a home in either the New Liberal Party or the Growth and Opportunity Party. These six parties reflect the underlying factions — and divides — within the Democratic and Republican parties. Until American politics nationalized in the 1980s and 1990s around divisive culture-war issues, they operated more independently within the two major political parties. We get to such a system through proportional multimember districts. This approach features districts much larger than our current tiny congressional ones — and each elects more than one person, at once, to represent the region. So more than one party could represent a district in proportion to their popularity within that large district — just as they do in most advanced democracies. Legislation introduced in the current Congress, the Fair Representation Act, would require use of multimember districts with ranked-choice voting in most states’ House selections as well as elections for the Senate. If more parties emerged, coalitions across parties would form to elect a speaker and organize committee assignments — just as coalitions form in multiparty legislatures around the world. Multiparty democracy would facilitate the shifting alliances and bargaining that are essential in democracy but have largely disappeared in today’s zero-sum conflict. The Senate would most likely become a much more free-wheeling institution, as it was in the past. Absent reform to the Electoral College, presidential elections would still probably come down to two major candidates. However, with partisan loyalties less fixed, more voters would judge candidates on the content of their ideas and character rather than the D or R next to their names. Moreover, a less hyperpartisan Congress will also most likely be less gridlocked and more productive, enabling it to reclaim a more central role in our national politics, lowering the stakes of presidential elections and potentially lowering the stakes for Supreme Court nominations in a new era of reduced partisanship. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/comethisfar/support

I’m excited to announce that my family and I are featured in an upcoming high-impact-Major release documentary project by a well-known film crew who has many successful and widely distributed films on Netflix, Amazon, PBS, The History Channel, and many more. They have filmed countless hours and have been shadowing our family through ups and downs these past 9 months. I’m also pleased to announce I am putting the finishing touches/editing a memoir book I authored titled “The Hero(in) Me; an Amazing Tale of Survival and Never-Ending Cycle of Triumph and Crushing Despair." I’m currently in the process of signing with a book agent/shopping it to publishers. Some very promising prospects on that front. Nothing to report quite yet, but stay tuned! Check out some of the documentary crew's current wildly successful films here: "Is Your Story Making You Sick?" - https://www.story.movie/ "The Long Shadow."- http://thelongshadowfilm.com/ Follow me on Social Media: Twitter- https://twitter.com/taylor4arizona Facebook- https://facebook.com/taylorforarizona Instagram- https://instagram.com/taylorforarizona Please leave a rating on this podcast and if you can, write a short review. ***Title Picture is of my tentative book cover.*** --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/comethisfar/support

A memoir, I wrote a few years ago for an assignment in a creative writing college course, documenting my experience in Afghanistan during a dangerous helicopter insertion or air assault mission to kill or capture a Taliban HVT (high-value target). Surviving this harrowing experience is without a doubt one of the biggest reasons I am able to keep fighting and persevere through the struggles and daily personal battles I face both large and small. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/comethisfar/support

With the emergence and full embrace of online sports betting by all professional sports leagues including Major League Baseball, how can they continue to justify the lifetime ban of baseball’s all time hit king and perhaps best all around player to ever live Pete Rose. Who was banned from baseball and thus ineligible for the Hall of Fame for betting on baseball. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/comethisfar/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/comethisfar/support