Telling It Like It Is

From an A.A. pamphlet called "A Member's Eye View of Alcoholics Anonymous" I came across these thoughts on how members try to pass along the message to new people . . . 

"The intuitive understanding that an alcoholic receives while compassionate, is not indulgent.  He is not asked what he is thinking.  He is told what he is thinking.  No one waits to trap him in a lie.  He is told what lies he is getting ready to tell.  In the end, he begins to achieve honesty by default.  There's not much point in trying to fool people who may have invented the game you're playing."

In terms a tad more crass: You can't bullshit a bullshitter.  It's not especially hard to spot the people who are doodling along without much conviction in their first tentative actions.  Face it - most people are not going to get sober or they are not going to get sober in Alcoholics Anonymous or they are not going to get sober in the meetings I attend.  This, while sad, is neither here nor there, and I say it without judgement.  It simply is.  It's hard to get sober and for this reason most people don't carry through with our Program.  Many of us are committed evangelists for the A.A. way of life at the start.  Many of us learn that trying to convince someone of something when the individual isn't open to the idea is not going to go very far.  Again, this is not a criticism.  It's an indicator of how hard it is to get sober.  And maybe how pigheaded we all are at the beginning.