You are willing to accept praise for getting your friends into poker, for the fun side, of course. Right? Wow Bradely, poker is so fun. You want the praise, yeah? Look at us all having fun. But when it goes bad, you wash your hands of it. Not my fault if it goes bad. It's their problem if it goes bad. But the fun side, you can accept credit for getting them involved in the fun fun poker world. But if it goes bad, that's all their problem. It's bullshit and I'm calling you on it. You don't want to accept responsibility for what can happen if things go wrong with your friends and family. And I'm just telling you, if something goes really really wrong, like say you get your dad or mom or I don't know, someone really close to you, someone you care deeply about, your best friend in the world into it, and they wind up killing themselves over it. Just imagine that happening for a minute, okay? Because maybe it won't happen to that person close to you. But it's going to happen to someone you spread it to. And maybe that person won't be the person close to you, but it will be a person that is a person who is a really close person to someone else. And even if you don't want to accept responsibility for it, that responsibility is on you. Just like when you give your friend the first cigarette, and a couple months later they are smoking a pack a day, part of the responsibility for that is on you. There are consequences for the actions you take. And you can try to intellectualize and rationalize it all you want, that everything is addictive and blah blah blah, but all that crap will go out the window if it ever comes back to you in a real and personal way. It hasn't to me, but I got a taste of what it could be like with a friend when he started to slip into it, and I started reaally thinking about it. Like... what if he really didn't stop. What if he didn't? How would his life be? What if he went on like that forever? And I read the Augusten Burroughs book "Dry" about alcoholism. Things can go on like that, how bad they can get. And then I started really looking hard at people in the card rooms, really listening to their conversations, watching them when they got up, watching them pull out their money, watching the denomination of bills get smaller, watching their faces, watching them walk out to the car. And one of those people could be one of the people you really, really love. Because of you. Find one of those people when you go to the card rooms and watch them, not with your glee that they are losing their money to you, but with compassion for them because they are really sick. Because the money isn't really important in life. And then when you can really see how sick they are, and imagine how their life is, place someone you care about in there. And then you will understand why you should shut up about how great poker is and listen to me around people you care about.
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Date: 2006-02-28 17:10 (UTC)You are willing to accept praise for getting your friends into poker, for the fun side, of course. Right? Wow Bradely, poker is so fun. You want the praise, yeah? Look at us all having fun. But when it goes bad, you wash your hands of it. Not my fault if it goes bad. It's their problem if it goes bad. But the fun side, you can accept credit for getting them involved in the fun fun poker world. But if it goes bad, that's all their problem. It's bullshit and I'm calling you on it. You don't want to accept responsibility for what can happen if things go wrong with your friends and family. And I'm just telling you, if something goes really really wrong, like say you get your dad or mom or I don't know, someone really close to you, someone you care deeply about, your best friend in the world into it, and they wind up killing themselves over it. Just imagine that happening for a minute, okay? Because maybe it won't happen to that person close to you. But it's going to happen to someone you spread it to. And maybe that person won't be the person close to you, but it will be a person that is a person who is a really close person to someone else. And even if you don't want to accept responsibility for it, that responsibility is on you. Just like when you give your friend the first cigarette, and a couple months later they are smoking a pack a day, part of the responsibility for that is on you. There are consequences for the actions you take. And you can try to intellectualize and rationalize it all you want, that everything is addictive and blah blah blah, but all that crap will go out the window if it ever comes back to you in a real and personal way. It hasn't to me, but I got a taste of what it could be like with a friend when he started to slip into it, and I started reaally thinking about it. Like... what if he really didn't stop. What if he didn't? How would his life be? What if he went on like that forever? And I read the Augusten Burroughs book "Dry" about alcoholism. Things can go on like that, how bad they can get. And then I started really looking hard at people in the card rooms, really listening to their conversations, watching them when they got up, watching them pull out their money, watching the denomination of bills get smaller, watching their faces, watching them walk out to the car. And one of those people could be one of the people you really, really love. Because of you. Find one of those people when you go to the card rooms and watch them, not with your glee that they are losing their money to you, but with compassion for them because they are really sick. Because the money isn't really important in life. And then when you can really see how sick they are, and imagine how their life is, place someone you care about in there. And then you will understand why you should shut up about how great poker is and listen to me around people you care about.