RIP DINO D.

Facebook is amazing, it is a place I vent, rant, rave, laugh, cry and stay in contact with friends. Today FB notified me that a friend back in Chicago was killed in an accident. I had just spoken to him a few days ago about some changes he was going through. It was no ones fault, just an accident of a young girl turning the corner at a busy intersection and my friend crossing that busy intersection at that same moment. Just an accident that ended a life suddenly and changed a young girls life forever.

Dino Daddosio was just getting his life together, again. Like many of us he had his ups and downs in life though at times like some of us his ups and downs were more extreme than the average person. He rode the roller coaster of life.  He was once again trying to get clean from drugs and alcohol as he had done  successfully before and then as some do for any number of reasons he relapsed. Though not always easy I have been blessed with thirteen continuous years of sobriety and I am grateful for every single day of it. Unlike Dino by the Grace of God I don't struggle as much with drinking, using and getting high, as I do with living the right way on a daily basis and though it gets a little easier everyday some days are harder than others.

Dino has just last week finished telling me he was getting into a new sober living home and was looking for a job. He had been through a lot but like most of us in the game, like myself, he had put himself through a lot. Many of us would beat others if they attempted to cause us the pain and harm what we often cause ourselves. We simply wouldn't stand for it from someone else but will spend years abusing ourselves. Dino may have been getting clean again but he was never a quitter and kept coming back. He kept going whenever things got rough and usually had a smile on his face. Many people like myself are blessed with consistent recovery while others go round and round with addiction and sobriety and never quite get it and some just give up, as did my friend Michael whom I wrote about not too long ago this past year when he committed suicide. Michael gave up and threw in the towel in Dino did not it wasn't in his make-up. He would stay sober for a period of time and then go back out there to experiment a little more. It didn't mean that my somewhat more consistent sobriety meant I was doing anything better than he, it was just the way the cards were dealt we both agreed on that. The roles could have easily been reversed in the disease of addiction. I considered myself blessed as did Dino for every opportunity we have been given. Like they say, addiction is cunning baffling and powerful. People like us simply want to live happy and die sober. Getting sober is the easy part staying sober is the work.

In many ways Dino taught me the power of not giving up and the difference between self surrender and giving up. He believed life was short and was famous for living it to the fullest. I learned a lot from Dino in the many years I knew him. I am grateful for having had that time to know him. There will never be another Dino Daddosio.

Dino could at times be a bit of s spaz but if you understood him you knew that was just his way getting through the day and dealing with the shit. We all have our way and Dino wasn't afraid of his. He lived his life like he played, full on, like he did in the mosh pit at a heavy metal concert, fast and with a big fat grin on his face. Dino always wore a smile and was ready with a handshake and he didn't suffer fake people lightly. He liked real talk and the real walk, wasn't afraid of who he was and could not care less if you didn't like who he was. Dino unlike so many was true to himself. He never gave up on himself or others, he always saw a better place just down the road and wasn't afraid to travel that road less traveled. I am certain he found that better place somewhere down that road and right now he has a big fat grin on his face. Dino did get his wish in the end because he died sober. RIP Dino D.