Saw this back in February in the Central Florida Intergrouper (AA newsletter) and thought it might help someone:
Reprinted from the Central Florida Intergrouper, Feb. 2016
"Addition is not the same as multiplication; abstinence is not the same as sobriety." --Anonymous
The twelve step design for living is elementary. Why, then, once having accepted powerlessness, once having the compulsion lifted, is it such a challenge to maintain? The answer lies in the foundation of an elementary education.
In our beginning math classes, we learned numbers and addition. Among the first lessons was 2+2=4. This was easy enough. Then came multiplication and here, one of our first lessons was that 2X2=4. The students lacking interest may believe, in seeing the exact same outcome, that they understand everything. They may smile and nod "yes," and agree to explanations, only to be sorely humiliated on a test. All at once, the wrinkled brows of parents and teachers discourage these students, leaving them feeling like a "math invalid." In truth, the only problem was a simple rush of the basics. This can be swiftly corrected with proper guidance and tools such as flash cards.
Newly sober alcoholics and addicts may fall into the trap of believing, after a few days, weeks or months of abstinence, that they are sober. Much like the children who answer the question, "What is 2X2?" correctly, they believe they understand the multiplication process entirely. These alcoholics and addicts believe they have mastered sobriety.
Humility is not an overnight achievement. Our ineptitude in the area of humility is revealed and tested through circumstances, seasons, tragedies and joy, so it requires time time to develop humility. We can move through to steps four and five, not having entire perfection of step three. But the twelve steps, like elementary math, are an aggregation - each one builds upon the step before it. We cannot skip a step, nor can we stand still. It is a dynamic process where we apply our newly discovered humility, to the best of our ability, in step four.
When we write our fourth step, we cannot simply jump to the fifth column and concede that we live in self-centered fear. This can be equated to those students believing they understand addition and multiplication when, in fact, they have command of neither.
We must properly work the fourth step to root out the nature of our character defects. We must see how our fears impact our behavior, our choices and our interactions with others. Like the root of a weed, our defects rarely lie directly beneath the surface of our troubles; they crawl and twist their way to the surface, almost as if to confuse the path of its source. In spite of this, they are firmly entrenched below, needing only the triggers of life to resurface and infest the garden once again. Proper investigation in step four reveals that what seem like our troubles are, in fact, mere distractions, while those issues we denied are so often the source of our misery. A person who properly maintains their "garden" will take the proper tools and patiently extract the root of a weed, repeating the exercise on an ongoing basis. As tools, the fourth and tenth step, thoroughly and consistently done, will maintain one's sobriety.
Reprinted from the Central Florida Intergrouper, Feb. 2016
"Addition is not the same as multiplication; abstinence is not the same as sobriety." --Anonymous
The twelve step design for living is elementary. Why, then, once having accepted powerlessness, once having the compulsion lifted, is it such a challenge to maintain? The answer lies in the foundation of an elementary education.
In our beginning math classes, we learned numbers and addition. Among the first lessons was 2+2=4. This was easy enough. Then came multiplication and here, one of our first lessons was that 2X2=4. The students lacking interest may believe, in seeing the exact same outcome, that they understand everything. They may smile and nod "yes," and agree to explanations, only to be sorely humiliated on a test. All at once, the wrinkled brows of parents and teachers discourage these students, leaving them feeling like a "math invalid." In truth, the only problem was a simple rush of the basics. This can be swiftly corrected with proper guidance and tools such as flash cards.
Newly sober alcoholics and addicts may fall into the trap of believing, after a few days, weeks or months of abstinence, that they are sober. Much like the children who answer the question, "What is 2X2?" correctly, they believe they understand the multiplication process entirely. These alcoholics and addicts believe they have mastered sobriety.
Humility is not an overnight achievement. Our ineptitude in the area of humility is revealed and tested through circumstances, seasons, tragedies and joy, so it requires time time to develop humility. We can move through to steps four and five, not having entire perfection of step three. But the twelve steps, like elementary math, are an aggregation - each one builds upon the step before it. We cannot skip a step, nor can we stand still. It is a dynamic process where we apply our newly discovered humility, to the best of our ability, in step four.
When we write our fourth step, we cannot simply jump to the fifth column and concede that we live in self-centered fear. This can be equated to those students believing they understand addition and multiplication when, in fact, they have command of neither.
We must properly work the fourth step to root out the nature of our character defects. We must see how our fears impact our behavior, our choices and our interactions with others. Like the root of a weed, our defects rarely lie directly beneath the surface of our troubles; they crawl and twist their way to the surface, almost as if to confuse the path of its source. In spite of this, they are firmly entrenched below, needing only the triggers of life to resurface and infest the garden once again. Proper investigation in step four reveals that what seem like our troubles are, in fact, mere distractions, while those issues we denied are so often the source of our misery. A person who properly maintains their "garden" will take the proper tools and patiently extract the root of a weed, repeating the exercise on an ongoing basis. As tools, the fourth and tenth step, thoroughly and consistently done, will maintain one's sobriety.
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