The To Do List and Grim Death

I'm sure I'm going to be repeating myself here.  This is to be expected.  How many new stories can I have?  How likely is it that I'm going to remember what stories I've told?  And how will I be able to reconstruct all of the lies that constitute the bulk of my best stories when I can't locate my wallet this morning?

There's a woman who attends my morning meeting who's a bit on the intense side if by "a bit" you mean "incredibly intense."  I always liked her because I like intense people but she was so intense that it made me uncomfortable in an amusing way.  Intense people get shit done and they accomplish a lot and they stretch themselves into new and interesting shapes.  I like that.  For a few years, however, I felt like whenever she approached me after a meeting I was being interviewed.  I was flattered but the conservations were impersonal and overwrought.  Her A.A. attendance was a perfect example of slotting in a healthy activity as a task to be completed.  Good for her for being diligent in her attendance but . . . c'mon . . . it's not supposed to be a grim task to be checked off the To List at the end of the day.  There should be some joy here.  We should come to meetings because we want to, not because we have to.  (Ed. Note: Nothing wrong with attending meetings because you know you should while not being particularly excited about it - this is common at the start and entirely understandable.  No one wakes up one morning and says: "Boy, my life is great - what the hell I think I'll go to Alcoholics Anonymous!")

My friend remarked one morning that the meetings made her feel so good and made such an improvement in her life outside The Rooms that she was going to start attending more frequently and not restrict herself to the two meetings a week she had slotted into her To Do list.  And I found that I began to enjoy her company more.  She's really pretty funny.  I would not have said this at the start.  She was wired like a time bomb.  Very accomplished but in a grim kind of way.

I never criticize anyone.  We're too hard on ourselves as it is.

I never . .  . ummm . . . try  to never . . . give advice.