Yesterday's title made me think of one of my favorite all-time A.A. anecdotes. I'm friends with a guy who really struggled to quit heroin for a couple of years. He's doing great now, a fact that makes my heart sing. A more miserable son of a bitch I cannot imagine when he was showing up at meetings in the midst of a run, sleeping in his car, shaking in his chair. I always gave him a hug and told him I loved him, and left it at that. It's not my job to tell people to quit doing what they're doing - that's up to them to decide.
Anyway, a while back he lifted his shirt and showed me one of the most horrific scars I have ever seen, a jagged line of thick keloid running from his hip up into his armpit. I mean this dude has a fucking scar. He owns a small tree-trimming business and he had a run-in with a chain saw.
"Whew," I marveled. "Wow. What's the lesson for you with that incident?"
He's got a pretty sense of humor but I thought his response was a mix of wry amusement and sheepish wonder: "Never climb into a tree with a running chain saw . . . while you're on heroin."
This is one of those rules that seems so obvious that you wouldn't think to bring it up to someone.
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