(((Erica Rose)))

Ruining my child's life one pun at a time.

[(((Erica Rose))) @rose625]

I wish that every time someone searched for "Mexico" and "Wall," this would come up. #XPNAtoZ

[Hunter Biden @HunterBiden]

To everyone so eager to cancel someone for a tattoo they got at age 22, a drunk text, a selfie they took in the middle of a mental health crisis:

Show us your laptop.
Show us your iCloud.
Open your entire digital life to your worst enemy. No context. No filter. No explanation.

You won’t.

You won’t because you know what I know. Any one of us, frozen at our worst moment, photographed in our lowest hour, looks like a monster. Looks like a stranger. Looks like someone who deserves to be cast out.

That is not who we are.

My mom and baby sister were killed in a car accident when I was just a kid. Cancer took my brother Beau, my best friend and my rock. I battled alcoholism. I battled addiction. I chose the coward’s way out more times than I can count.

For years I believed the defining chapters of my life were written by tragedy, loss, and shame.

I no longer believe that.

Pain can shape us. Loss can humble us. Failures can leave scars that never fully fade. But none of them have the authority to define us.

And it sure as hell ain’t the critic that counts.

That authority belongs to us alone-the person in the arena.

Every setback presents a choice. Play the victim, or cut the bullshit and take ownership for who we become next.

Life does not determine our character. It reveals it.

Again and again we are asked the same question. When shit happens, what next?

We are not defined by what happened to us. We are not defined by the worst photo, the worst text, the worst tattoo, the worst night. We are defined by the person we choose to become. And by the courage to choose that person, every single day.

So before you reach for the gavel - show us your laptop.

You won’t.

The whole world saw mine. And I am still here. Still becoming. Still choosing. Still standing.

That is the only definition that matters.

[The Telegraph @Telegraph]

British artist David Hockney has died aged 88, his publicist has said

🔗: https://t.co/VyVmyRaQO9

[Emo Philips @EmoPhilips]

never give a squirrel matches

[(((Erica Rose))) @rose625]

@JoshMalina Does he think the show was real? I’m not entirely joking . . . 😬

[Hunter Biden @HunterBiden]

Things the recovery industry will not tell you:

1. The drug worked. That is why people use it. Not weakness. Not moral failure.
A neurological event so complete and persuasive that any honest account of addiction has to start there.
The problem is not that the drug fails. The problem is that what it does is unrepeatable, and you will burn your entire life to the ground trying to get back to a place that no longer exists.

2. Shame is not guilt. Guilt says I did something bad. Shame says I am something bad. Guilt is appropriate. Shame is a cell with no windows. Most people use the words interchangeably. That mistake is lethal.

3. You cannot shame someone who has already named the thing you are holding over them. Say it first. Say it in plain light. The weapon drops.

4. Guilt can coexist with self-respect. Shame cannot. You can hold the damage and the dignity at the same time. I know because I live there.

5. Radical honesty does not give you back who you were. It hands you the clean slate of who you always wanted to be. The mask comes off. The cartoon other people drew of you stays on the page.

6. Nobody gets clean on a winning streak.

7. You have to be almost self-delusional in your forgiveness of yourself. (Go watch Chase Hughes)

8. The greatest sin was not the chaos. It was the absence. Being unavailable to the people who needed you.

9. Sustainable recovery starts with one thing: honesty with yourself. If you love an addict and want to help, that is the only door in.

10. I am only an expert on my recovery. Nobody is an expert on anyone else’s.

[(((Erica Rose))) @rose625]

@JoshMalina With the sound of him snoring on the B-side.

[(((Erica Rose))) @rose625]

@JoshMalina I love this for him.

[(((Erica Rose))) @rose625]

@RustyBaker647 Last time I was there, you had to get a membership to a social club to access alcohol, but the laws have loosened up a bit since then.

[(((Jew))) @JoshMalina]

I miss being shocked.

[(((Erica Rose))) @rose625]

@JoshMalina I’m in.

[(((Erica Rose))) @rose625]

@JoshMalina Your poem is lovely, dark and deep.

[(((Erica Rose))) @rose625]

@JoshMalina She admits to raising him?

[(((Erica Rose))) @rose625]

@JoshMalina I . . . Nope. I’m just going to sit this one out. 🤐

[(((Erica Rose))) @rose625]

@JoshMalina Refuah shelaima! Always happy to be reminded that there are still decent people in the world.

[(((Erica Rose))) @rose625]

@JoshMalina Sure, not creepy at all.

[(((Erica Rose))) @rose625]

@JoshMalina Good & Plenty from right here in PA! Originally made in Philly in the 1890s, I think.

[(((Erica Rose))) @rose625]

@JoshMalina Wishing the appropriate parent a good and plentiful birthday!

[(((Erica Rose))) @rose625]

@JoshMalina Fewer.

[(((Erica Rose))) @rose625]

@JoshMalina Other men are obviously jealous that you use *all* the parts of speech, Josh. So sexy! 😘