The Middle Ground

Middle:  A point or part halfway between extremes; central point, part, time, etc.


I took a call from a friend in The Program yesterday and eventually steered the conversation around to the concept of The Middle Ground because, frankly, I only have two or three things that I can talk about with any expertise when it comes to recovery.  I've become my sponsor.  If I can't fit my advice into a couple of simple, easy-to-understand bromides then I'm better off not touching it with a ten foot pole.  I can complicate anything.  This is why our meeting spaces are festooned with plaques urging us to do things in language of 4 words or less.  Once we get to 5 words then we start to analyze analyze analyze.


It is still surprising to me how easily I move to the extreme position of everything.  I'm the greatest guy who ever lived or I'm a piece of garbage.  Something is going to work out exactly how I want it to or it's going to be an unmitigated disaster.  I want to feel fantastic or I might as well shoot myself.


I like the idea that things are going to work out very well for me in the long run. I can hang my hat on that.  I don't want to get too tangled up in the implications of how I feel at this very minute, although I do want to get very tangled up in the minute itself.  It's where I need to be if I want to be content.  But if I take a hike and spend all of my time looking down at my feet as I navigate hills and step over rocks and into mud I have a miserable time, so I try to keep one eye on the horizon.  I try to look up and away from myself, try to get some perspective.  I don't want to look at a particularly sharp and fearsome rock and think: "Damn.  It's going to be nothing but a steady diet of sharp and fearsome rocks for me."  I want to balance my very reasonable concern with my footing with the thought that the view at the end is going to be wonderful.  I need to keep an eye on the rocks, of course, lest I go cascading down into a gully of some sort, but I don't want to stare at them without blinking.  I don't want to become obsessed with the rocks but I don't want to pretend that they're not there, either.


OK.