Action V Intention

More from the priestly priest . . .

As time goes by, the gap between intention and performance grows larger. It is normal for alcoholics to be all-or-nothing: some thing is either worth doing or it is dismissed as rubbish, nonsense, or something beneath contempt. And even then, the chances are nothing will happen. Most alcoholics live most of the time in a state of complete potential. They may be about to do something, they could do something, they may be thinking about doing something, but they rarely do anything, other than drinking. Planning looks wonderful and powerful, and contemplation looks helpful, but action is unusual. Many alcoholics have set out to write the best novel in the world with a blank sheet of paper and a bottle. Very often the bottle is finished before a single line has been written down. They attempt to take alcohol along with them on their path to fame and fortune, success, and fulfillment.

Action: Something done, often so as to accomplish a purpose.

Intention: A hope; a wish.

(Ed. Note: Action appears in the literature 48 times; Intention, 3. Apparently action is where the excitement is.)

There's a passage somewhere about the fact that the alcoholic judges himself by his intentions while the world judges him by his actions.  Talk is cheap.  Action is where the rubber hits the road.

Here's a section from the Big Book that drives home the point about the power of alcohol in our lives: "I have had many men who had, for example, worked a period of months on some problem or business deal which was to be settled on a certain date, favorably to them.  They took a drink a day or so prior to the date, and then the phenomenon of craving at once became paramount to all other interests so that the important appointment was not met."

When I was a kid my family and I decided that I should become an eye doctor.  In college I exploited a loophole to get accepted at optometry school after only two years of undergraduate work.  I killed myself, doubling up on classes and going to summer school, in a huge hurry to get somewhere.  I was fine for the first two years of optometry and even passed the first set of the state certification boards, although my alcohol consumption was really interfering with my ability to do the work.  The start of my fifth year of university saw me simply drinking.  I went to class but I didn't study.  I knew this wasn't going to turn out well but I was unable to get off the bus - tomorrow I would jump back in!  Inevitably, I was asked to leave.  Four years of work and I decided to drink and use instead of continue my studies.  This is, as you can imagine, a painful memory to contemplate, even though I've pondered it many, many times. 

Alcohol gave us wings to fly.

And then it took away the sky.