"We in Alcoholics Anonymous do not try to chart the path for the human soul or try to lay out a blueprint of the workings of faith, as one might plan a charity drive. We do tell the newcomer that we have renewed our faith in a Higher Power. In the telling, our faith is further renewed. We believe there is a force for good in the universe and that if we link up with this force, we are carried onward to a new life."
One of the slowest, steadiest, best-est lessons I've learned in A.A. is that I need to stay out of everyone else's business. I have no idea what anyone else should do. I can't chart your path. I can't tell someone who is killing himself with methamphetamine what to do. It would seem that putting down the crack pipe and the bottle of Jack Daniels would be helpful but that would assume I know what the plan is for you. Again, I guess the world is lucky that keeping track of my wallet and car keys is such a taxing task that I don't have time to run the world anymore. Maybe the meth head has to take the bus a few more stops down the line. Then maybe his message will resonate with someone else later on.
I was four years into a six year program to become an optometrist when I was unceremoniously kicked out of the school. I am vaguely aware that a lot of people tried to get me back on the path, assuming quite reasonably that my life would run a lot more smoothly if I wasn't knocking back three quarts of Schlitz Malt Liquor each night. They were all unsuccessful. They were all spectacularly unsuccessful. I idly wonder what my life would have looked like if I had stayed the course. I don't feel any regret for what happened - I'm in a damn good place. I don't see how I could be in any better place. So my take-away is that I had to go through what I went through to get to this place. Not saying that if I had sobered up ten years earlier than I did that I wouldn't be in a sweet place right now but it would be a different sweet place.
It took what it took and it is what it is.
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