People often ask what makes the AA program work. One of the answers is that AA works because it gets us away from ourselves as the center of the universe. And it teaches us to rely more on the fellowship of others and on strength from God. Are these things keeping me sober?
Meditation for the Day
God is the great interpreter of one human personality to another. Each personality is so different. God alone understands perfectly the language of each and can interpret between the two. Here I find the miracles of change and the true interpretation of life.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may be in the right relationship to God.
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'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'
I've discovered that many AA's like to discuss the reasons WHY this program works, while others prefer to say, "I don't care why it works, it works, and that's all I need to know". I think both approaches are fair, but I'm the type of personality that likes to dissect things. Even as a kid, I would take apart old electronic devices and try to figure out how they worked, and that interest eventually led me to a degree in physics.
For me, the reasons why AA works are encapsulated in the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, which are a course of action that leads individual alcoholics to the Grace of God, and helps them maintain a life of grace through the strength of the Fellowship.
But there is one key ingredient in the Steps and Traditions that is not found in other methodologies, and which makes AA unique: the idea of one alcoholic helping another. Everything else in the steps can be found in various religious and spiritual traditions dating to the beginning of recorded history: humility, honesty, introspection, confession, amends, service, etc. But our service, as varied as it might be toward other persons, needs to include the dimension of helping other alcoholics, either individually, or collectively. We cannot stay sober unless we give our sobriety away.
I only attend a couple of meetings a week, in my hometown. Both my wife and I work long hours, and we're raising four kids. I simply don't have the time or gas money to drive around the state and get to a meeting every day, like some of my retired friends. So internet forums have been a Godsend to me. If I can encourage someone in their sobriety and share my experience, hope, and strength, I feel like I'm engaging in this critical service dimension every day.
I could work all of the steps all I wanted to, but if I wasn't giving away my sobriety, I know I would eventually lose mine.
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The sway of alcohol over mankind is unquestionably due to its power to stimulate the mystical faculties of human nature, usually crushed to earth by the cold facts and dry criticisms of the sober hour. ---William James
Thanks for your post Q ... ... ... You sound more and more like me, and the past you describe is so very similar to mine, I find it rather incredible to read ... Electronics was my career and I love the field and study of physics ... and with regards to your stated opinion above, I agree totally ...
My thoughts come from those that are non-alcoholics that inquire 'How is it that you were able to get sober in AA when you were unable to with the help of modern medicine or even by going to church' ... My answer usually includes the fact that unless you are an alcoholic, there is NO way you can possibly relate to my internal struggles with life ... It is indeed a fact, that one alcoholic can understand and work with another alcoholic like no other combination ... I had the good fortune to hook up with a brilliant doctor while in my last rehab/treatment center ... He was a recovering alcoholic himself ... wow, what a guy ... I tell you, he could see into my very soul ... He had me draw a picture of my life as it was that day ... and from that, he went on to accurately tell me of my life up to that point in time ... it was like he was psychic or something ...
I went on to find out that other alcoholics knew me better than I knew myself ... THAT is when I began to know that these drunks were on to something ... In some form, we have all experienced the very same things ... even a complete stranger, if he's an alcoholic, then we know each other intimately without having ever met before ... it's truly amazing ... but it's a fact ... that knowledge in itself is the foundation of how one alcoholic can help another alcoholic get and stay sober ... and it always seems to hinge on a strong 'spiritual connection' with God with those that go on to stay sober ...
No one understands the power of 'craving a drink' better than another alcoholic ... so it just stands to 'reason' that we can help each other like no other combination on earth ... and then when we invite God into our lives, there is nothing we cannot go on to accomplish ... there is nothing more rewarding than to go on to living a 'noble' life of helping others ...
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'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'
God / HP / whatever you want to call things is like the sun. You can face it and get warm, or you can hide in the shadows and get cold. Alcoholism is climbing into the freezer and turning off the light.
The program gently takes you by the hand and leads you out into the garden so you can sit in the sun and warm your soul.
Sometimes the sun is too hot, or too bright, but the program is the sunscreen and the sunglasses, but we need to put them on, and not get overwhelmed and run back to hide in the shadows (and sooner or later the freezer).
That's my take.
It's probably wrong (and in a way I hope it is) but it works for me.
It's a great analogy Frodo, especially the part about climbing into the freezer and turning off the light. Consider it stolen. :)
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The sway of alcohol over mankind is unquestionably due to its power to stimulate the mystical faculties of human nature, usually crushed to earth by the cold facts and dry criticisms of the sober hour. ---William James
It's a great analogy Frodo, especially the part about climbing into the freezer and turning off the light. Consider it stolen. :)
It wasn't mine to steal. I write here there and everywhere, and I write a lot of fiction, but I can guarantee that a line like that wouldn't have just popped out the way it did.
Sometimes here, or sometimes in shares, things pop out that make a hell of a lot of sense - deep and wonderful sense, but I also know they aren't my worlds or my style.
But then I remember that a sober day for this hopeless drunk is a miracle and use that as a starting point for everything, then I cease to worry and just go stand in the sun.
