The Big Picture

Roughly 24 years ago today I quit smoking dope and began a run of continuous sobriety.  That continuous part is really critical.  Farmer Bill used to interrupt me when I was announcing my anniversary in the Old Town: "Is that continuous sobriety?" he'd ask.  "Oh, continuous?" I'd say.  "I didn't realize it had to be continuous."  I had quit drinking about 6 months before I finally quit using.  Apparently, my interpretation of The Program at the start didn't require that I give up weed.  I was vaguely uneasy taking 30, 60, and 90 day chips but not uneasy enough to mention that I was smoking dope.  I decided to try the Marijuana Maintenance Plan to ease into recovery, even though it was no recovery at all.


Anyway, if there's one thing I've learned in sobriety it's this: Everything works out in the long run.  There aren't many promises in the short term; we eat some shit sandwiches in the short term, but The Big Picture is rosy and earns good money at the box office.


As a great example, about this time in 2006 The Evil Corporation bought the company I worked for.  I could see the handwriting on the wall: Things were bad and they were going to get worse.  A lot worse, and quickly.  I was upset for a period of time.  Not a little upset, either, but quite upset.  Today I see that I was somewhat off on my prediction of how long this awful cataclysm would take to ruin my life, believing "quickly" to be 5 weeks, maybe 5 months, not 5 years.


Whoever sold me my crystal ball screwed me to the wall, that's for sure.