I was at a meeting today... as my sponsee (Sponsee? Is that what they're called? Pigeon? Protege? Anywho...) wanted to go in the midst of me helping him move from here to there, get stuff from storage 5 towns away... blah blah blah... stuff anti/XAers say that Sponsers do to their pigeons...
... anyway, I was at a meeting today, and it was my 9th BDay... yay me! anyway, and the topic was... 2nd step. Insanity got brought up and sanity and stuff... then someone talked about how you could make a doorknob your god... or a G.roup O.f D.runks.
Then I got to thinking... sure. For 59 minutes maybe. Here's your 59 minute God. Check it back in as you leave the effing meeting.
Wow, I got a coin today and it has an X in it. How kewl is that?
Mac, Happy Birthday!
ReplyDeleteNow about AA and God:
AA is great when it comes to bringing the topic of God/Higher Power/whatever to the new member, who probably has given that topic little thought during his or her drinking/drugging career.
Eventually though, the long-term sober members of AA are compelled to develop their concept of a Higher Power away from doorknobs/lightbulbs/sponsors/groups/whatever to something the rest of the world regards as genuinely spiritual, if not actually religious.
Most of those that have posted here are Christian, and at least one is Buddhist. Is AA's idea of spirituality a "good fit" for these people?
It wasn't for me, and for that and for other reasons, and so I have moved on. The same hour that I used to spend in AA meetings is now spent in Bible study and meditation, and I believe that I'm getting more out of that program of recovery than I was getting out of the AA meetings that I was attending.
Also, I don't have to deal with the various pathological personalities that I routinely met "in the rooms" - I already encounter enough of them in my day to day existence!
Good points but I don't think we should dummy down God for the newcomer in the first place.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to get sober with or without God... use this brand or that, good on me. I just won't be shoving my concept down anybody's throat. Alkies won't stand for it, nor will those poor worthless bastards in those A.A. meetings.
Oh and thanks for the happy bd.
I also don't think AA should "dummy down God", but that is exactly what it does in "the rooms"!
DeleteI didn't describe the members of AA as "worthless", only as generally "pathological" (meaning "diseased").
Alcoholism (like every other addiction) is a disease, and addicts are diseased people in the physical, mental and moral implications of the term. They are people "out of balance", and I was once one of them.
I no longer am, and although I wish them well, I really don't need their company.
Are you in the habit of hanging around doctors or hospitals after you get better?
Well mr Rotten, you might in your bible study discover that Jesus mostly hanged out with the pathological. That is how strong the light he tries to point you to is.
DeleteWelcome to the blog winddust.
DeleteRotten Ralph will not be posting here ever again nor will he ever read this due to his superior sobriety and non-A.A. recovery.
In fact, he wants me to tear the walls down here and shut this site down.
But there's no need. This is just my little doghouse in cyberspace and y'all can come and go as you please.
My oldest Brother died Tuesday before last and we had a nice graveside funeral. He was a paranoid schizophrenic who smoked himself to death. Tragic end to a rough life but he's at peace now. R.I.P. Chris.
I go to one meeting a week with other recovered alcoholics.
ReplyDeleteI don't have to "go" there or "hang out with them" but I do things with them outside of the group from time to time as they are fellow human beings such as I.
Could you explain the doctor/hospital analogy to me one more time? I don't "get" it.
Of course they are human beings, Mac, where did I say they were not?
ReplyDeleteActive substance abusers are human too, but I avoid them. Many (if not most) of the people in AA are still active regardless of their claims, and there is very little that I can do for them so I avoid them.
Regarding doctors/hospitals,etc.: one gets better and then one goes home and gets on with their life.
That is what I have done, and suggest that you keep an open mind about the issue. AA is alright for newcomers (less than one year clean or sober), but becomes redundant after that.
Ever think about spending an hour a week instead with a church that you like?
I don't believe in the disease concept.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that the alcoholic is just one of many kinds of folks who have embarked on a spiritual path.
I go to church and sit until the band comes out and plays us some beautiful music... then a minister/preacher/rabbi type comes out and tells us about current events and a bit of history and about Jesus. Then he says... Praise the Lord pass the basket, body of Christ. Then they strike up the band again... nobody applaudes ... and we're told to shake our fellows hands and smile at each other, then we're on our way to go eat and we'll do it again next week.
Fantastic way to spend an hour... with a bunch of "sane" people.
What a crock, Mac, and it looks to me like AA is the right place for you!
DeleteBTW: Is your god a lightbulb or a doorknob?
If you don't like my blog Ralph, why do you come here? To inform me? To enlighten me? To mock me?
ReplyDeleteNice life you have living in 10, 11, and 12 or independently spiritual.
I'm a follower of Jesus. I just don't think I need to go to church every Sunday to do that.
I do, however enjoy going to my home group meeting once a week to fellowship with folks who have a common goal as I and do stuff like go to church once a week etc.
I think we all have a way of tapping into this consciousness of God and a unique way of worshipping this God. A cook may have a unique way of expressing their faith in the kitchen, an athlete in the gym or field, a dancer on a ball room and a drunk in a stupid meeting.
If you hate A.A. or feel you've outgrown it, why not start up an article on that? Do you have or need authorship privileges here to do so?
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ReplyDeleteThe flippant citation of the humorously idolatrous “door-knob God” is the result of an unfortunate degradation of concept within the evolution of AA culture. It seems to come from Ebby's purported conversation with Bill W. (then an atheist) wherein Ebby, with a new religious zeal unfamiliar to Wilson, explains to Bill that he could choose his “own concept” of God. The reader assumes that this is juxtaposed against the backdrop of the dominant religious movements and themes of that age, Catholicism and Protestantism.
Bill was raised in a Congregational Church in East Dorset Vermont by his maternal grandparents, having been abandoned by both his parents. Bills resistance to "formal religion" and the accompanying concepts can be summed up in his words: “With ministers, and the world’s religions, I parted right there. When they talked of a God personal to me, who was love, superhuman strength and direction, I became irritated and my mind snapped shut against such a theory.”
AA's original idea of finding God on your own through a sincere desire to know him, has devolved into concepts more ridiculous than the old ideas of institutional religion that we previously found difficult to accept. The alcoholic is not over endowed with consistency!
Tell the truth and then let the truth do it's own work.
Colter
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ReplyDeleteBack to your hole Rotten Ralph. In case you forgot where the door that hit you on the ass on the way out was, I'll remind you.
ReplyDeleteIf you hate homosexuals that's fine with me. Or if you're a blatant closet homosexual yourself, that's fine with me also.
Just leave references of sheep and Brokeback Mountain off this blog as it's off topic.
You should just honor your threat to leave here and your threat to never read here as well.