God is everything or God is nothing. What is your choice to be?

Topic at our meeting tonight.

If you chose God is everything, what is your experience with this?  Any recent experience with this?

How about God is nothing?  How does/did this work for you?  Especially in relation to facing a life without booze and a life without God?

Being a guy who does steps yearly, it's a simple proposition of facing life right now on my own... without God.  There's no God.  Just me and the bit of power I can muster to wind out my days.  What would that look like?  How am I doing with God's grace?  How am I doing with the Power of God at my fingertips?  Am I... of myself, nothing?  Or am I everything?  Can I manifest what I need to get by?  How do others see me?  Is my life a success?  Is it worth living?  Page 52 stuff.

Now, what does "God is everything" look like?  Am I willing to put God number 1 and me number 2?  How about... God number 1, y'all number 2, and me number 3?  Proposition kinda sucks... when I get honest with myself.  Would I do this if I didn't have to?  Do I have to?  What happens to me with relation to booze if I choose otherwise?

Can I keep myself sober?  If so, why did I ever wind up in A.A.?  If that is the case, and I'm still in A.A. or if I wasted away in A.A., did A.A. do its job of directing me to where I needed to go?  Or could I have been hustled into A.A.?  If so, could it be my fault that I let that happen?

Now... if I can't keep myself sober, does the need for Power seem like such a ridiculous proposition?  Are there some who can keep themselves sober and can... if they really want/need to, moderate and control their booze intake?  You know?  8 hours or 12 hours from bottle to throttle? 

I've been studying for my CDL and it says that booze affects our brain in such a way that we lose our ability to control judgment and inhibition.  So... this describes everybody.  The logical choice would seem to be "Don't ever drink and drive."  Either drink, or drive, period.  But... it happens.  I don't think that just alkies drink and drive.  I think that some people assume power and they rebel against rational decisions at times.  So... it's possible that many get sent to A.A. that need not face the question God is everything or God is nothing.

I also understand that there are those who will point out that Bill W. and the authors of the book stole this spiritual tool from elsewhere.  Well so be it.  Set that argument aside.  What does it mean to you?  What's your experience with it?  How have you used and benefited from that proposition?

I've Failed, but Music from SR has a choice we don't

I've failed ________________________________________

I was doing so well. I was in the chat room last night talking about my iPad and how it's helped me keep my mind occupied. I was 10 days sober last night.

However, I gained today on the stock market. I've been unemployed for a year (partial reason for me drinking), but have been buying and selling stocks, breaking even and doing o.k. But, after today's big bust through I'm up A LOT. A LOT A LOT. Capitalization doesn't even do this justice. I was at home, and my buddies called me when they heard market close.

So, I was taken from my house by my 3 best friends, they know I'm recovering, but didn't care.

So...I went to a bar tonight, it's been 11 days since my last drink.

Usually, after a day like today I would be 13+ drinks deep right now. Fortunately, I only had 3 shots and 2 beers tonight, about 1/2 of what I would normally drink. I feel like I've failed, but I wanted to share my "success" with someone, and I had a designated driver for tonight.

Either way, I've failed and I'd love to hear what someone in my position would do. I guess I have to head to A.A. to learn how to cope with days like today.

Thank you for listening. At least I'm able to actually type this out. Usually, I'm 4x's as drunk at this point. So, I guess I've had some sort of "break through."

I don't think you've failed at all. You're trying to stop drinking booze for whatever reason, you had success, you celebrated. Now... if you want to find a different way to celebrate, you might want to really look at this. If you're gonna quit drinking booze for good and all, you'd better have a damned good reason for it.

Why? Why quit drinking? Can you moderate? Maybe you're not an alcoholic. Maybe you can be a hard drinker and enjoy your drinking... or at least control the damage.

Maybe you're a real alcoholic or a potential, but you're not done drinking yet. Don't just jump into A.A. and say "Here I am." That's like going to a Hearing clinic and saying, "What?" They're gonna push you into doing the A.A. program and not giving you the dignity to find out for yourself whether you are or not and whether you're done drinking or not.

SR is there for their reasons, but they are going to lead you down one and only one path... total abstinence from booze and drugs no matter what. That's not even A.A. No way, no how. A true A.A.er cannot ask the tough questions they need to ask you to find out your truth. The antiAAers will come bitching and moaning about how mean and brutal we are. The truth is, we're like a mother's kiss next to booze... if you're a real alcoholic... and are done with booze and willing to get "in" all the way.

If you are a real alcoholic and done with it, you'll realize that something will come up, sooner or later... to show you first hand... that Keith is right and Music is full of shit.

Being an alcoholic means you have NO CHOICE where booze is concerned. If you have choice, choose to drink or to not drink, save your buck and don't go to A.A. and don't waste a minute of your valuable time on Sober Recovery and go play that stock market. Go make some fucking money and have fun!

Music posts:

I'm a "real alcoholic"! When I came to AA I found out I had a choice. The choice is simple. To drink, or not to drink.....that is the question!! I called someone, got together with someone, went to a meeting...sometimes two or three in a row in the same day. Calling myself a "real alcoholic" doesn't negate the fact that I have choices. I always did have a choice. Problem is the choice was not in the equation once I took that "first" drink. I learned to do something BEFORE I took that first drink. The longer we're in/around AA, the less innocent we become. Claiming ignorance doesn't fly.

Hey Music, kiss the darkest part of my back. You may be a real alcoholic, but you're not A.A. I don't care if you're sober 54 years and a Navy Admiral. You're full of shit. You don't have a choice TO drink once recovered and you don't have a choice to NOT drink until you become recovered.

No offense, but you did it wrong. You must not be a real alky after all. You were a situational. This is why we fought. Have a good day, sir.

Warped lives of blameless children

So what does the book say about Alcoholism or being an alcoholic? Is it a disease? An allergy? An illness? A choice?

"An illness of this sort- and we have come to believe it an illness- involves those about us in a way no other human sickness can. If a person has cancer all are sorry for him and no one is angry or hurt. But not so with the alcoholic illness, for with it there goes annihilation of all the things worth while in life. It brings misunderstanding, fierce resentment, financial insecurity, disgusted friends and employers, warped lives of blameless children, sad wives and parents- anyone can increase the list."

Who cares? If you've got it, shame on you, right? If you're affected by one who has it, then shame on them, right?

This is easy to do when you consider alcoholism to be a choice. If you want to scapegoat the alcoholic, just call it a choice. Simple. Oh, but do us a favor; don't develop yet another "treatment" method that you're gonna make a bunch of money on... or we're gonna start scapegoating you! How do you like that, doctor? Shrink? Preacherman? Bent anti-AAer?