A brother in fellowship uses this acronym extensively and, until tonight, when I needed to hear it, it used to irritate the face off me.
PAGGLES - Pride, Anger, Greed, Gluttony, Lust, Envy and Sloth - the seven deadly sins that as an alcoholic, I fell prey to and sometimes still do.
But I know when the sins start now, it takes a wee while to realise what is happening to me and why.
Tonight I had 5 out of 7 and the worst one was Anger. By thinking (and later talking) about how I was feeling I identified my character defects of Pride, Anger, Greed, Gluttony and Envy were all in the field of play to a greater oor lesser extent. (Thank God Lust and Sloth didn't come in or I might have been in big trouble.)
So for reasons that it is best to share one to one with another human being, myself and God, I found myself going from reasonable serenity to an executive committee on the go in my head and murderous thoughts in my heart in the space of 30 minutes. When i then heard that the locals were objecting to us smoking on the street outside the meeting (and littering with cigarette ends) I was all ready to get arsey, ready to get myself arrested and be a martyr to the cause of the free thinking smoker, lead the revolution and go to Robben Island for the rest of my life.
This is how the fluff balls under the bed trip me up, they hide the real reasons why I'm angry. Shit, it's reasonable that people don't want piles of fag ends on their streets.
An hour and a half of meeting, listening to others, sharing honestly in the meeting, talking to a brother or two in fellowship and accepting the support and hugs from the brothers and sisters at the meeting put me a damn long way back towards the serenity I had lost.
So guess what, the issues that have bit me are still there, the consequences of my actions as a sick and demented drinker still jump up and slap me around a bit and I still know that I don't have a time machine, so I cannot change the past, only learn from it and change the present, which builds me a new past and better future. There may always be an element of Pepe the Architect in my life, but hey, me and my sick self set me up for that.
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It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you got. BB
Bill, Thanks. I needed a pneumonic to remember them all. I used to use that movie "Seven" and kept forgetting the murders. Gluttony was the fat guy, Greed was the pound-of-flesh, Sloth was the fly-strip guy, Lust was the strap-on-from-hell, Wrath & Envy were the final scene and that always left me clutching for Pride (the disfigured model).
Strangely enough, of the 7, it is Pride (Hubris) that I find to be at heart of most of my defects.
PAGGLES. At first, I though that you had adopted another cat and gave it a silly name.
Tnanks a lot for this post, Bill, it being another one so well worded and sending so many frank pictures thru my head. Several of our Old AA Groups (of more than 50 years) around here (Akron, OH) had lost their rites to hold meetings at their various church locations, because of the mess we smoking alcoholics made of the places. I hope we have learned our lesson. It sucks trying to move a meeting, but hey, it sucks trying to temper the casual flicks of a cigarette butt (fag ends to you) onto the Devil Strip (Tree Lawn to everyone else in the U.S. but us) or into the parking lot by a freshly naive bunch of chain smoking newer (and sometimes older) members who are not thinking about things like that. We have even designated our own little "AA Police Force" for the cigarette issue at certain meetings, later coined the "AA Mafia") and that doesn't work out so well sometimes (give an alcoholic a "badge"??) and I digress.... but I understand the issue.
What I have greater knowledge of, although perhaps not a very good understanding of yet, is the concept of the Seven Deadly Sins. And now, a blessing in PAGGLES. I could never, for the life of me remember what they were. My dad took me out for a lobster tail when I was 10 for learning the Ten Commandments (and fine lot of good that did me- what were they?) ... but no one in AA is offering me a GLUTTONOUS (teehee) meal for learning what I need to know to survive and function as a human being trying to keep tabs on my small and large demons. It's probably best that way, as I should have a full belly and an even more prideful brain were I to get third party rewards for this stuff. The rewards I can get by picking up a simple acronym like this are much more important.
I too have exercised my human "right" to Pride, Anger, Gluttony, Greed, Lust, and Envy lately, and I have big plans for Sloth once he and I can get together after this move out of my house. I can see it now.... "Hey Sloth, ain't it grand the wind stopped blowin'?" and back it will try to take me, into the realms of not doing everything I should do for my recovery. But I am armed with yet another tool, or rather, another fine piece of ammunition, for when the battle commences.
Thanks again, Joni
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~Your Higher Power has not given you a longing to do that which you have no ability to do.
