Peevish Obsessions Crashing at the Borderline

Belly up to the table, friends! Mr. B has a feast of morsels for the mind at this dinner party which include more pet peeves in particular order (but you can be sure airports and Wal-Mart is involved), reviews of the Netflix documentary "Crash" as well the hit horror film of 2026 (so far) "Obsession" and the first part of his review (and some would say obsession) with Madonna - "The Queen of Pop"! And of course, a spiritual journey that covers Step 9 of the OEA plan for recovery. If you are desperately seeking a league of your own in which you can obsess over pet peeves and the Queen of Pop - well, tuck in that napkin - it's time to dine!

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:02

It's time for dinner. Ding dong ding dong ding dung. From the creative mind of Scott Bertelson, after four decades of teaching our impressionable youth, the dinner belt, you are invited to enjoy conversational morsels for the mind at Mr. B's dinner party.

SPEAKER_03 0:20

Yeah, dinner! Friends and neighbors, it's time once again to belly up to the table for Mr. B's dinner party. Mr.

SPEAKER_06 0:33

B's got a table so wide. Pull up a chair, let your worries slide. School days, tales, and a movie or two. He's serving up wisdom with a side of stew. Belly up to the table, my friend. The feast of thought will never end. From travels far to a spiritual climb. Morsels of music served in rhyme.

SPEAKER_03 1:12

Oh, I hope you have a hearty appetite. I'm going to share little tidbits of information and entertaining items. I hope you find entertaining throughout the next few moments. And I hope whatever you're doing, walking the dog, the dog is walking you, whatever it is, there's a plethora of things you could be doing, and you can still listen to me at the same time. What more do you want out of life? Alright, my friends, let's get this party started.

SPEAKER_02 1:46

Let's lend our ears to the wacky observations of the world, according to Scott. Mr. B's wacky, wacky, wacky, wacky world.

SPEAKER_03 1:56

Oh, my happy, irritated friends out there in Podcast Land. For Mr. B's wacky, wacky, wacky, wacky, wacky, wacky world. I love to say that. That just shows you how desperate I am for entertainment. Anyway, every day I wake up wacky, wacky, wacky. Uh, but anyway, uh, I've shared lots of pet peeves, as you know, things that can get under your skin if you allow them to. And deal with lots of different aspects of life. And today I'm just going to share a general list, and I pray to God that I'm not repeating any. I guess if you went back to my archives, you could find to see whether or not I have talked about that. But uh, I don't keep very good records, actually none at all, of what I've done. So uh if I do repeat one, I apologize. But that should just tell you that that just makes it very clear that it really irks me. Even though I've given myself over to my higher power. Alright. So, here's my first one, and not necessarily any order. Somebody who's tapping, whether it's a pencil or pen or your foot, why does that bother me? I don't get it, but it does. It just sets my nerves on fire. Uh so instead of attacking that person and and threatening their lives, I really need to uh tell that person to try to stop that if they possibly can. Okay, that's that's one. Let's see if I can find another one. Oh, waiting to find a pet peeve. There's one too. Oh, leaving drawers and cabinets open. I know many people, including myself, are in the habit of forgetting to close cabinets and drawers after they open them for cooking or getting ready for the day. And this can be very annoying for people who can walk into it. Your housemate, husband, wife, whatever it would be, maybe a combination, they're all above. Uh that is irritating. Oh, here's another one. Not screwing the lids on the bottles and containers all the way. Now, I only have myself to blame for that since I do live alone. But when you uh don't put the lid completely on salad dressing, and then it spills half the contents spill out when you tip it, and you can only blame yourself, or you have uh water and a container in your car, and you haven't uh made sure that the lid is uh on tight and you spill water all over your seat. So, oh why is that such a problem? Oh, but it is it is a problem. Um people who cut in lines, that that bothers me. Uh, if we have to stand in line for a movie or or to get tickets for some event or whatever the case would be, uh, if I'm in place that I've earned that right to be there, um there's just nothing worse than a line cutter. So I would highly expect you, my listening audience, don't do that and just wait your turn accordingly. Um here's one too. I know I've talked about plane etiquette before, but once the plane lands, and I do quite a bit of flying, uh we we've hit the ground, uh, they've just said you can uh take off your seat belts, and people are jumping up out of their seats like a missile. Why is that? Especially if you're near the back of the plane, it's going to take you a while to get off. Um because the people have to who are ahead of you have to get off before you do. So it just feels like somebody's is trying to intentionally cut cut the line. And I don't know. Whatever you want to do, it's your call. I personally don't get up until it's about two rows in front of me. And then since it takes me a while to get up, then I have that going on. Here's another one driving too slow. Uh I've been accused of this on the interstate, going very slowly. But I really need to tell myself that I need to follow the speed limit. So if it's 70 on the interstate, I should go at least 70. I should not be going 40 because that can also be a detriment to people who are driving and a detriment to me too. So uh I I tend to have a tendency to um drive too slowly on interstate and drive over the speed limit on county blacktops. Oops! Shouldn't have admitted that. What is that? I don't know. Oh here's one I may have mentioned before, but it surely is worth mentioning again. Driving too close to the car in front of you. You know, tailgating is really a bad idea, and it's caused a road rage and accidents, and you really need to keep a car, one car link between you and the car in front of you for every 10 miles. For every 10 miles, keep that in mind. The faster you're going, the more room you should have. Here's one going to the movies. I went to the movies the other day, and somebody was throwing candy at me. There were very few people in the theater, but I can't claim where it was coming from, but they were throwing milk duds at me. I can't eat milk duds, they're not part of my food plan. But anyway, people who talk during the movies. I've I've separated myself from people who talk too much during the movies. I'm not there to hear about your viewpoints about the movies. You want to talk afterwards, take me out for coffee, that's fine. But get off your phone. Don't be talking to somebody on your phone. It's just not necessary. Here's one that I would definitely, I just have a couple more for today. You only can take so many peppies out of time. I get that okay. Anyway, uh, unsolicited advice and recommendations. Let me just tell you, my happy loved ones out there, I try to practice this for myself. If I didn't ask your opinion, I don't want it. Clear and simple. If you offer your opinion and I didn't ask for it, I don't want it. Many people, many, many people, and if I'm one of those people, I highly apologize, but I don't think I am anymore. Uh, when it comes to suggesting where to go, what to do, and how to live your life, are very willing to tell you how to live the perfect life. Really? Mm-hmm. Yeah, I don't think so. Uh, how about slow walkers? Now, okay, I'm 67, but I still walk quite briskly. That's just the way I am. And if I'm walking in a mall or uh down the sidewalk or in a grocery store that's very uh busy with people, the aisles are crowded very much like Walmart, especially on the weekends. That's a fate worse than death. Uh the slow walkers, uh, whatever the definition of that can really irritate me if I allow it. Uh what I really need to do is just match the pace of my walking with those around me. If that is impossible, then I excuse me, then I need to try to keep to the side so people in a hurry can have a clear path if I'm walking slowly, which I don't think I do. Now I can whip a cart through Walmart aisles at incredible speeds. Uh so I can get around the slow walkers uh if I need to. Uh here's another one for flying. I call them gate lice, L-I-C-E. You're probably familiar with gate lice. These are people who crowd the boarding gate to make sure they get on the plane as soon as humanly possible. And they very much annoy the gate agents. Now, all the times that I've been flowing, you're normally in groups, groups one, two, three, four, and five, and they um tell you when group two should be coming through, group three. You you see where I'm going with this. But some people just can't wait. No! They've got to be ahead of everybody else. That's a gate lights person. So don't be one of those. Just wait for your group number to come up and then go. Okay. How about a one-upper? Oh, you know what a one-upper is. Say that you told a great story or you have some exciting event coming up. Well, the one-upper. This is a person who has a much better story and much more exciting event. Because it's all about them. You're not a part of the equation. So no matter what you come up with, they're going to come up with something better. Alright. I'm going to share two more. And that would be the feel of cotton balls. Oh, yeah. Have you ever felt those? I don't like cotton balls at all. Uh people get chilled just talking about the idea of rubbing two cotton balls together. It's just creepy. I've seen shows on TLC called My Strange Addiction where people eat cotton balls. Oh, whole myriad of things they eat. Oh, can't talk about that. Uh and my last one for today are people who are constantly on a diet. Now, again, it's not my place to tell a person how to live and what to eat. I can only do this for myself. But you've probably been with somebody who's ordered pizza or pasta, and they tell you that they really shouldn't be eating any of this, but they're going to take a break from their diet, and then they go on and talk about their diet on and on and on, what they eat, what they don't eat, so on and so forth. I personally think that's more of a private thing. That's just me. But just don't redo that. And the last one: people who are rude to customer service representatives on the phone, in person, I know the tendency to want to be rude. I get that feeling. I know that feeling because you, I guess recently have been trying to get something uh rectified for a uh make sure I have all my paperwork in order for a uh trip I'm going on coming up here. By the time this is on, I will have been back home, hopefully. Um but if you're having a problem with a service or a product, you can still be polite to the person on the other end. Remember, they're just trying to do their job. That's what they're getting paid for, and it can't be easy. So don't vomit all over them. Be kind. So, once again, my happy I love everybody and I love everything, and I never have a pet peeve. Really? That's one of my pet peeves. I don't buy that at all. Uh, here is a list of some of the things that maybe you want to keep in mind that have or will bother you. But you can get past it. You can turn the other cheek, you can pray to your higher power, you can just say, There's just nothing I can do about it. That's probably the best one. There's just nothing I can do about it. So why don't I just accept it? Alright, thanks for the wacky, wacky world.

SPEAKER_02 14:19

For the next course, come one, come all. Nothing spoiled here. From Comfort Classics to what's hot now. Film reviews from Mr. B's Rewatchables.

SPEAKER_07 14:32

Three occupants, 17-year-old female still breathing.

SPEAKER_03 14:38

A car crash claiming two young lives and injured a third early yesterday morning. All right, folks, for my rewatchables. I've done a couple of documentaries for you. Uh I guess I've been on a documentary roll lately. Uh, another one I found very, very interesting. It's called The Crash, C-R-A-S-H. And this is a documentary that is on Netflix right now, and I found it very, very compelling. And it's a story, uh, true story of a 17-year-old girl named Mackenzie Cherilla. And she was involved in a fateful July 31st, 2022 crash in Ohio, where she was driving the car, she was driving a Toyota Camry, and she uh sped up to speeds of over 100 miles an hour and crashed head on, head on into a brick warehouse. Now she was not killed, she was injured, but this did result in two people being killed. Her twenty one excuse me, her 20-year-old boyfriend and her 19-year-old friend.

SPEAKER_09 15:49

That split second change all of our lives forever.

SPEAKER_03 15:59

Now the documentary is amazing to watch because the question is, did she do it purposely or was it an accident?

SPEAKER_07 16:08

It didn't add up. It was hard to comprehend.

SPEAKER_09 16:17

I would never see her purposely wanting to hurt them.

SPEAKER_07 16:20

This was clearly a toxic relationship. We needed to get a full picture of who Mackenzie Gorilla was.

SPEAKER_03 16:28

And so throughout this documentary, investigators uh are investigating, I guess that's what investigators do, uh information looking at the vehicle's data recorder, showing the accelerator was pressed all the way down with no attempt to break.

SPEAKER_07 16:46

There was no breaking. This was not an accident.

SPEAKER_03 16:57

Then she was accused of murder and went on trial in 2023, and a jury found her guilty of murder. Yeah. And sentenced her to life with the possibility of parole after 15 years. And so this documentary includes surveillance footage, archival evidence, and Cherilla's first ever interview from prison. Now, what I found so interesting about it is that uh Cherilla, they go into background about her life with her uh boyfriend, how he treated how she treated her boyfriend, what kind of um what I would consider um bizarre relationship they had, on again, off again, and how she was viewed by high school friends. This is the best friend group that I've ever had in my life.

SPEAKER_09 18:06

We had just graduated high school.

SPEAKER_03 18:12

And uh again, I'm not taking sides on this. I had no affiliation with Cherilla, but the documentary gives the impression that she was a very, very, very mean, vile person, very cruel to her classmates, and everything was about her, and she was very, very uh one-sided and very, very uh much wanted everybody to wait on her with hand and foot. Now, the question that also comes up is did she want to kill herself as she was speeding towards this brick wall at a hundred miles an hour? Or did she just want her friends to die? She made it very, very clear in her testimony that this was an accident. Now I'm not here today, folks, to tell you one way or another what to believe. I will say the documentary definitely gives the impression with the evidence that it was intentional knowing that she would have probably died if that was her guess, along with her two friends, but she didn't. And she after she was taken out of the hospital in interviews, said that there's no way that she ever would do this intentionally. It was not her fault, it was an accident. So what you need to keep in mind as you're watching this, which I would highly recommend you watch, is do you think the evidence presented is enough to warrant her being arrested and found guilty of murder by a jury of these two people who were in the car. So there's definitely reasonable doubt. And it's a great uh film to watch, a documentary, in terms of uh what the beliefs and lifestyles are of young people today, what their dating relationships are like, their relationships, how they get along, how they don't get along. You also um have interviews by the parents of the boys who were killed, and interviews uh of the parents of Cyrilla, who of course definitely believe that she was not guilty of this. Um the documentary definitely, I think, paints a portrait of somebody who could have done this intentionally. But you know what, my friends? You watch the crash on Netflix and you decide for yourself. Look at the proof they give for both sides. Was it an accident and she just happened to hit that wall at excessive speeds? Or was she aiming for it and welcoming death? You'll be thinking about it for days afterwards.

SPEAKER_07 21:37

What took place inside that car?

SPEAKER_03 21:42

The crash on Netflix.

SPEAKER_08 21:44

I listen to it in the morning when I'm getting ready for the day, and I am also in love with your new theme music. I sing and dance while I'm getting ready. Keep up the good work.

SPEAKER_03 21:57

Oh, my happy friends, Summers here in the Living is easy. And it's time to go to the movies. You get to popcorn for those who can have it. And you get to have such a plethora of movies that you can go to every day. They have matinees all the time. There's one film that just has come out that I saw that has become quite the phenomenon. It's called Obsession.

SPEAKER_00 22:35

Weird how you two are dating on.

SPEAKER_03 22:57

Obsession. And it's American supernatural psychological horror film directed and edited by a young man, very young man called Curry Barker, who has done a number of comedic YouTube videos, I believe. The movie Obsession is about a music store employee who buys a supernatural toy that grants him his wish for his friend Nikki to fall in love with him.

SPEAKER_00 23:24

I wish Nikki Freeman loved me more than anyone in the entire world.

SPEAKER_03 23:31

Now you would think that this results in Happily Ever After. No. Not at all. Quite the opposite. Uh Barker was a YouTube sketch comedian. He had a short horror film called The Chair. It has gone on to break box office records. Every weekend it makes more money. Makes more money. It is a gold mine. It has gross 224.8 million dollars. The tenth highest grossing film of 2026. Now there's horror movies all the time coming at you. But anyway, this story, and I'm not going to really give it away how it ends. As you can probably guess, it doesn't have a happy ending. But the reason that I really like this film, now you know that I love horror films, my happy friends. So I made a special effort to go see this, and was I disappointed? No, no, no. This director is amazing as to how he told this story. How he uses darkness so effectively. How he uses jump scares so effectively. Is it an incredibly gross film? No, it is not. There's a couple unnerving moments. But it's a psychological story about this young man who knows that he's involved with somebody and he doesn't know how to get away from her. What can he do to break the spell? What can he do? And unfortunately, he has to choose a method that's so very, very sad. Is this a feel-good film? No. Why are people so drawn to this particular horror film? Which could have easily come and go. Is it because of people relating to it that they've been in obsessive relationships? Maybe. Is it because of the two great performances by the lead actor and actress? Both absolutely, especially the woman uh who's may I say possessed, I guess. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Is it the simplicity of the story? I'm not sure. Is it all of the above? For whatever reason, and that's all I'm going to tell you about it. You need to see obsession. If you never watch a horror film, do not expect this one to be blood tossed at you, drenched in blood. That's not what this is. This is more sitting in the darkness, being in an eerie environment. There's a scene where the young man is sitting in a vehicle in a parking lot, and he's talking to a friend, and he's trying to find a way to break off with her because she is ruining his life and stalking him and doing very bizarre, bizarre things. And something happens that scene that makes me jump way up and to the left, the rafters of the theater. It was so effective, and the ending is so creepy. The hype is good. The hype is true. You gotta see it. Don't bring the kitties, it's rated R. Obsession.

SPEAKER_06 28:03

I was calling to see if there's a way I can cancel the witch.

SPEAKER_00 28:10

Don't click this forever.

unknown 28:12

Oh yeah, I mean it's good.

SPEAKER_00 28:15

As long as I live.

SPEAKER_03 28:20

My loved ones, I've talked about various recording artists up in. I've talked about uh BB, many others, and there's so many more artists that I respect, admire, that I would like to highlight. Today I'm going to be sharing with you part one of my love affair with the Queen of Pop, Madonna. Now don't roll your eyes. Oh, she's washed up, oh she's old, she's my age, folks. Now, not that I would go out on stage in office that she wears, nobody would want to see that. But uh I have listened to her for decades, and I have to tell you that Madonna is constantly reinventing herself. She has a new album, it's called Confessions on the Dance Floor 2, because she did a Confessions on the Dance Floor 20 years ago, a dance album, and she's largely known for her dance house music. Uh and I was just telling my producer how recently she was on um YouTube where she did a pop-up concert in the middle of Times Square uh for half an hour or so. Uh free concert to promote her album. And she sang new songs and she sang some of her classics. And from a distance, she looks incredibly young. Yes, she's had a lot of work done. Of course, you'd have to to look that good at age 67. Of course, I I think I look okay, but anyway, we won't get into that. So, anyway, but I don't have the means to uh do what she does to uh improve her body and her looks. But anyway, she was born August 16, 1958. I was born October 26, 1958, so she'll be turning 68 here soon. She's an American singer, songwriter, producer, and she was also an actress. Some didn't think she was very good. I'm one of them, but yeah, she tried. She has constantly been known for her ability over the years to reinvent herself. Different genres of music, different types of concerts, different types of looks. Her songs have made comments socially, politically, sexually, and on religion. Um, she is really considered one of the most influential musicians of all time. Yes, this girl from uh The Bronx. I think she lived in the Bronx for a while. She moved to New York City uh when she first started as a performer. And she has broken gender barriers in music and uh just made a name for herself. She moved to New York City in 1978 to pursue a career in dance. Yeah, she if you ever go to YouTube and you can find most of her concerts on YouTube, she was outstanding as a dance performer. Outstanding. Um she was in a rock band for a while, and then she had her debut studio album, Madonna, which came out in 1983. I remember that album. Borderline, oh my gosh, I remember videos. I remember her early videos. She was the queen of videos. She could come up with the most ingenious, exciting, innovative uh videos for her songs. You could spend the whole day just watching her videos. She has earned 18 multi-platinum albums. This would include her big follow-up to Madonna Like a Virgin. Ortice singing in a wedding dress in Italy, in Venice. Love that. 1984. Then came True Blue, 1986. And then Confessions on the Dance Floor, 2005. Her biggest bestseller was the album called Like a Prayer. Which I love that song. Came out in 1989. Then she took a reprieve to have her daughter, the birth of her daughter. She has two children that she gave birth to. She's also adopted children. Then she came out with the award-winning Ray of Light in 1998. And music in 2000. And Rolling Stone considered Like a Prayer, Ray of Light, and Music some of the greatest albums of all time. Yes. So go to Spotify and if you question her range of vocal quality, her range of different styles of music, you will be amazed what you will find on Spotify. She's had so many great hits. Like a virgin, virgin, papa don't preach. Like a prayer, Vogue, Take a Bow, Frozen, Music, Hung Up, Four Minutes. That's just a very brief sampling of some of the songs that she's done. There's so many, many, many more. Now, turning aside from her uh skill as a vocalist, she has been in movies. And that's all started in 1985 at the beginning of her career in a film called Desperately Seeking Susan, where she plays a character very much like what she was conveying in her music videos. She was also in a league of their own in 92, and my favorite choice of her as a performer was in Evita.

SPEAKER_04 35:56

Don't cry for me, Argentina. The truth is I never left you.

SPEAKER_03 36:05

The Anthro Lloyd Weber uh musical that's constantly being reinvented, I believe it's coming back to Broadway now. That came out in 1996. Now, most of her films were not very well respected by the critics. Not that your life should hinge on that, but she did win the Golden Globe for Best Actress for Avita in 1996. So that is really, really something. She's a great believer of giving to charities. She founded the Ray of Light of Light. Come on, Scott, talk! Foundation in 1998. And raising Malawi in 2006 for gender equality and LGBT rights. Madonna is the best selling female music artist of all time. Of all time. You can't scoff at that. Well, maybe you say she's not the world's best singer. Maybe not. But she knows how to package herself. And she's doing it now at age 67 with coming out with a brand new album. She is phenomenal in concert. I have had the chance to see her in concert twice. Once in Minneapolis a few years back, and one time at the Coliseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. And even though we had to wait for her to perform, she's always late. She was two and I believe two and a half hours late for her concert in Las Vegas. But anyway, um, she's a queen, she can do what she wants. She gives an awe-inspiring show. It is magic. And I'm hoping that if she does a tour for her latest album that I can have a chance to go to that and see it. She's won Grammy Awards, Golden Globes, as I said, 20 MTV Video M video Music Awards. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in her first year of eligibility. She was the world's highest paid female musician for 11 years from the age to 2010. Let me tell you something about her early life. Madonna was born in 1958 in Bay City, Michigan. Her father, Tony, was a military engineer. Her mother was an X-ray technician. Tony's parents, her father, were Italian and her mother was French Canadian. She was raised in the Detroit suburbs of Pontiac with two older brothers and three younger siblings. When Madonna was five years old, her mother unfortunately died of breast cancer. And that same year, Tony, her father, married the family's housekeeper. They had three children. Madonna says as she was growing up, she was a very lonely girl who was always searching for something. Her father enrolled her in classical piano lessons. But then she persuaded him that she should be able to study ballet. When she was going to high school, she was a straight age student and a member of the cheerleading squad. In 78, she left college and moved to New York City. She came, she says, to New York City with only $35 in her pocket. She moved to the Alphabet City area of the East Village, did various jobs, was studying dance. And then she married, or I should say, she went she got into a romantic relationship with a musician. And she lived in basically poverty, sleeping in basements, um, not having much for clothes. In eighty-two, Madonna would go to various nightclubs to persuade this jockey to play her demo. And her song was Burning Up and Physical Attraction. They were released in eighty-three. And then she was dating various people at this time, and then she found somebody to produce her debut studio album, which was called Madonna. And this produced some of the best songs to this date. Holiday, Borderline, Lucky Star. You can find these all on Spotify and other platforms. That takes us up to 1984, and that's as far as I'm going to go today. So I've given you a little bit about the wealth and prestige and popularity of Madonna, her early roots, her family. And when we get together again for part two, you're going to see how Madonna, her name became emblazoned across all realms of music for her concerts, for her movies, for her songs, for her, as I said before, and I'll say again, her way of reinventing herself. And that's what saved her from being a one-hit wonder. I remember the first time, and you could probably find this on YouTube, that she performed publicly was on American Bandstand on ABC. Does anybody out there in Mr. Beast Podcast Land remember American Bandstand? I watched it every Saturday. This is pre MTV. And she performed Lucky Star, maybe, borderline, I can't remember what it was on this show. Who would have lunk that this little girl woman would have such an influential impact on our society for the next few decades and still is to today's standards. She's still performing, she's still writing, she's still causing controversy, and she's still and always will be the Queen of Pop, Madonna. Part one.

SPEAKER_01 44:47

I'm never doing that again. So you go back there and you tell old rich Mr. Chocolate Man that he ain't closing me down.

SPEAKER_02 44:56

Let's have a seat round the proverbial table. Would you like to say Grace? With a nod to our higher power and Mr. B's spiritual journey.

SPEAKER_03 45:08

For my spiritual journey, folks, I have been talking about the 12 steps that have helped reshape and save my life. And I'm going to go on with step nine. I don't know if I uh very honestly am going to tell you the truth on this. I can't remember if I said much about step eight. Step eight is made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends in them all. And you do this to clean up your side of the street, you don't do it for anybody else. And this is crucially important that you have to share this and do this in person, is usually the best way. If you can't, then you have to find some other means of doing it. Which leads to step nine. Is when you make direct amends to people, unless if you did, it would cause more injury. Let me share from the the twelve and twelve, the twelve steps and the twelve traditions. Step nine proves to be the most surprising of the twelve. Before we do the step, most of us dread the thought of going to each person we've harmed. We don't want to acknowledge our faults and taking direct action to remedy the damage we did or repay the losses. After making amends, however, those of us who dreaded Step 9 the most are eager to sing its praises. This step has freed us from the shackles of our past, mistaken in a miraculous way. Our lives are changed, our broken relationships mended, and the ill will which poisoned our hearts for years is washed away. And I have made amends, and I can attest to the power of what I just read. It makes a huge, huge difference. If you don't make amends, you're not going to keep your sobriety. Those of us still facing step nine may have heard about the benefits of making amends from those who've already done the step. Even so, our fears may make us want to procrastinate. We're warned that to put off making our amends when it mobilizes and threaten our recovery. I agree with that. As soon as we become willing to in step eight, we need to move ahead quickly and act on all that we want to willingly share. On the other hand, we also need to exercise some common sense. The ninth set specifically warns us of the dangers of doing more harm than good if we face people directly and talk with them about hurtful situations of the past. For this reason, many of us have found it advisable to discuss the actions we're about to take with a sponsor or another person who understand the 12-step way of life. We have probably already discussed some of our plans in the process of becoming willing to make amends. Now we need to resolve any lingering questions and doubts as to how we should proceed by checking out our words and actions ahead of time with someone more experienced than we are, someone who is detached from the situation. And for me, that would be my sponsor. Our sponsors will probably remind us that the purpose of step nine is to clear away guilt and ill will so that we may better have relationships with people whom our lives have touched. In most cases, this will require us to do more than just say I'm sorry. In making amends, we'll need to acknowledge the specific harm we've done, apologize, make appropriate restitution, and change our behavior towards them in the future. Before starting out to make amends, we must let go of any expectations we may have of how the other people will receive us. In some cases, we'll be treated better than we anticipated. Sometimes people won't even remember we even harmed them. Others might refuse our attempt to make restitution. In some rare instances, there will be those who refuse to accept our apologies. If that happens, we release these people without rancor. We cannot control how others receive our amends. They have the right to hold grudges against us the rest of their lives if they choose to. They don't offer us forgiveness and we don't need it to complete step nine and recover from compulsive eating. Our only job is to clear off our side of the street by doing whatever we can to right our wrongs. Having done so, we no longer need to feel any guilt or anger about these situations. And that's as much as I'm going to share today about making amends. I was lucky in my sharing that the parties were very receptive. They did not necessarily apologize for their behavior. That wasn't the point. The point was, as I've said many times before, that I was cleaning my side of the street. And it relieved me of so much inner turmoil. And I replaced that with happiness. So whether or not you're a believer in the 12 steps, if you've done something to offend somebody, your gut will tell you if you've done something to offend somebody and you know you need to make restitutions, then reach out to that person and say, I'm sorry, and here's why I'm sorry. And I just wanted you to know you'll find yourself on a path to everlasting happiness and acceptance of yourself because you realize you're simply human. I wish I knew what it was. But anyway, I'll be back again to talk with you about little tidbits of information. I hope that you feel you are satisfied that your tummy is full and you can face the world with dignity and respect for yourself. Alright, my friends, until we meet again. This is Mr. B with Mr. B's dinner party saying, I welcome you to come back to sit and dine with me.

SPEAKER_06 52:27

Bye bye for now. Television dramas and comedic reviews, pet peeves buzzing like honeydew blues, poetry sprinkled like salt on a dish, every word served with a twist and a switch belly up to the table, my friend. The feast of thought will never end. From travel far to a spiritual climb.

SPEAKER_02 52:58

Mr. B's dinner party is hosted by Scott Burkelson, edited and produced by Troy Thompson. Recorded and distributed at Sunnyside Farm Studios and platformed by Butter stations flowing like fine red wine.

SPEAKER_06 53:12

World journeys mapped with tales divine. He's hosting a dinner for your hungry mind. A banquet of life where you can unwind the lead to the table, my friend. The feast of never end from travel's fire to a spiritual climb. Morsels of music.

SPEAKER_02 53:52

Listen and enjoy every other Wednesday. Conversational morsels for the mind on Mr. B's dinner party.