Admittance Only

Unmanageable:  Difficult or impossible to manipulate or control.                                                            Admit:  Confess to be true, typically with reluctance. 

Admitted that we were powerless over alcohol   (wait for it . . . wait for it . .  )  that our lives had become unmanageable.

Have you seen the ending of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?"  The two of them are shot up bad, taking temporary refuge in a shot up saloon, reloading, talking witty shit, working on one more stupid, unworkable, idiotic plan while the rest of us can see hundreds of armed soldiers taking positions on every building in the square.  It's over.  The end is clearly visible to everyone but the two guys whose lives are unmanageable.  That's how I feel today when I'm trying to reason with someone who hasn't come to grips with the unmanageability part.  That's how they felt trying to reason with me.  I knew it to be true but I wasn't ready to admit it.

From the A.A. pamphlet A.A. for alcoholics with mental health issues: "The whole idea of being 'restored to sanity' was confusing and irritating to me until I finally accepted that working the Steps was not going to fix my mental illness.  That is because my mental illness is not a character defect.  It is not spiritual in nature.  Like alcoholism and other addictions, mental illness also tells us that we don't have it."

I also like this Buddhist reminder of the true nature of spirituality: "People who are not Buddhists - Christians, Jews, Moslems, and so forth - can generate an other-concerned attitude of equal value by thinking: 'I will bring about help and happiness for all beings.' "  No judgement.  No right or wrong.  What can I do to be of service to someone else today.