Touchstones of the World, Unite!

"Rejoice when the going gets rough.  To rejoice in difficulty doesn't seem reasonable, because the natural way would be to give up and cry.  But we rebound from trouble faster when we turn off the tears and turn on the joy.  If we have never done it before, we need to learn how to think joy and act joyful, because the heart is listening - and it is out of the hear that all issues are settled."

I like this idea of saying good things even when you don't believe in good things.  I believe that we can change our thinking for the good when we repeat stuff that's good.  If I say I'm old, I'll feel old.  If I think I'm stupid or I can't do this or can't do that, then I'll throw the proverbial towel in the proverbial ring, and decide I can't do it.  

"Pain is the touchstone of all spiritual growth."  When I first heard this much beloved and oft quoted aphorism of A.A.  I immediately thought: "Fuck's a touchstone?"  It is "Any physical or intellectual measure by which the validity or merit of a concept can be tested."     

Hopefully those of us who have been around for a long time can pass some of this hard-earned perspective on to the newer members.  I hope that I can say something to a thirty year old or a forty year old that is going to be received more openly than when it comes from a parent, with all of the baggage and history and prejudices connected to that relationship.  And I hope that the remove from the individual that we can offer is helpful, too.  After all, if I offer a suggestion and you don't take it, then it's no skin off my ass and what do I know, anyhow?

I believe my dry wit and gentle teasing is well-received, until the times that it isn't.  This is bound to happen.  Not often, but it happens.  I believe that most of the time it makes people smile.  It makes me smile.  I believe that I've developed a fine touch with my teasing although it wasn't always this way.  Dry wit is often birthed in sarcasm, delivered with a heavy, combatitive hand, and sarcasm is "hate with a smile."  When I was younger my sarcasm was a defense mechanism and it was used to belittle and diminish people from time to time.  I give myself a pass on much of this - it's not easy growing up especially when you're tossed in with a lot of other kids growing up.  We could be cruel, all of us.