Selfishness - Self-Centeredness!

 "Sponsorship is an important aspect of Alcoholics Anonymous - a reflection of the way A.A. was founded; with one alcoholic helping another.  In A.A. sponsor and sponsored meet as equals, just as our co-founders, Bill W. and Dr. Bob did."    A.A. pamphlet on sponsorship.

"Sometimes great distances exist between the high points of our lives.  Time moves swiftly and we tend to let it slip away without making it count while we wait on another high experience.  We discount it as nothing unless we have reached some spectacular height and have passed ten other people on the way.  The Indian does not consider himself idle when he stands still watching, listening, seeing the stars, or watching the sunset."  Iroquois Saying

"Don't fuck with SuperK's coffee."  A Great Truth of the Universe

I asked a new woman a few days ago how her holiday trip to Colorado went.  "It was great," she chirped brightly.  "How was your holiday?"  I had to laugh at our insistence on deflecting attention away from ourselves while resenting the fact that no one is paying attention to us.  Don't make a fuss for my birthday but why didn't you remember my birthday, you selfish asshole?  That kind of thinking.  I really struggled for the longest time with the idea that when people asked how I was doing they did it because they wanted to know how I was doing.  With me everything was a quid pro quo - I asked how you were doing because I wanted to talk about how I was doing and the best way to get that accomplished was to feign interest in you, get the how are you doing part over.

This woman's sponsor finally responded to her repeated assertion that everything was wonderful with this bon mot: "If you don't let me in I'm not going to be able to help you."

"Selfishness - self-centeredness!  That, we think, is the root of our troubles.  Driven by a hundred forms of fear, self-delusion, self-seeking, and self-pity, we step on the toes of our fellows and they retaliate.  So our troubles, we think, are basically of our own making."  Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous

When something in our minds rings a bell that warns us, we do well to listen.  Every one of us has a sounding board, an intuition that analyzes the way that we are moving.  It points the right way and we're fools if we don't listen.  To ignore the impressions that are inside us is like trying to go through a door but refusing to use the doorknob.  It's one thing to be dense and another altogether to willfully get lost in the wilderness.  I should listen to my alarm system now and again.