Simple Not Easy

Easy:  That can be done, got, mastered, etc. with ease; not difficult; not exacting.


Getting pissed off at something or someone and then picking up a drink is easy.  Working on your character defects and your spirituality and your amends is not easy.  It's simple, but it's not easy.   The directions can be explained relatively quickly but the execution is going to take some time.


"But I like easy," I remarked when I came into The Program.  "Easy is the way to go."  This was the era of Half-Measures Horseface.  Easier, softer Horseface.  I was not known for my diligent work or any kind of consistent, sustained effort on anything.  I was under the impression that the benefits of The Program would be given to me all wrapped up with a fancy bow on top.


Simple:  Easy to do, solve, or understand, as a task, question, etc.


The Program is not rocket science.  There are only 12 Steps, well explained in The Big Book then flogged half to death in the 12&12.  A member with a few years of solid sobriety can give a newcomer a pretty good overview in an hour or so.


There's a lot to recommend in simple.  It can make things easy.  For instance, I'd like to own a brand new Ferrari.  A black one with a spiffy red stripe.  I'd like that a lot.  Now, I'm not that smart but I'm pretty old so I've had some nice things that I had no business having in my life and I've learned some lessons doing this.  Not a Ferrari.  I think I drove a Fiat once but that's as close to an Italian supercar as I've ever come, or ever will come if I value my marriage to SuperK.


So I see high speed tires that cost $750 a piece and two thousand dollar tune-ups and astronomical insurance rates and . . . well, you get the idea.  So I own a Subaru.  It's not turning any heads as I floor it, forcing the four squirrels that power the vehicle to really start running in their cages, but it's not causing me any angst at night, either.


Simple.  That's the way to go.