A Dozen Steps

Getting Ahead

by Mark on August 10th, 2006

“Getting Ahead” is the title of a piece which is included in the writings in the book “Came To Believe” on page 113. The writer was from Manchester, Mass.

The piece begins with;

“Most alcoholics I have known, including myself, wanted to get ahead. If we didn’t, well, there was nothing so rosy as the dreams of success and glory which subsequently came out of the bottle; such fantasies are the warp and woof of the active alcoholic’s life.”

I have no idea at all what the writer means by warp and woof… but I do understand “dreams of success and glory” from a bottle. They go on to say;

“I think that one of the main differences between an active alcoholic and a recovering alcoholic can be expressed as a matter of tense. The active alcoholic tends to live in the future or in the past. The sober alcoholic, using part of the philosophy he learns in his A.A. experience, lives or strives to live in the present.”

That I definitely understand. More than that, I also understand this;

“In the excesses of my alcohol-inspired ambition, I used to imagine that to Get Ahead I would need to be like some preternatural bulldozer, plowing its way upward and onward, plunging inexorably over the embankments of life, grinding, heaving, snorting, reckless of all obstacles, impelled by the virtues of ambition and the seductions of success - the kind of success that comes effortlessly to us from a barroom bottle.”

The reality of a different answer begins to unfold as he/she says;

“I did not know then that if you want to Get Ahead with any degree of peace, you must first learn to Stay Here. It takes guts to Stay Here; it takes self-discipline and resolution.”

I’ll imagine this was meant to point out some of the shortcomings of Getting Ahead in contrast to Staying Here;

“Anyone with sufficient energy and a one-track mind can Get Ahead; witness the robber barons, the dictators, the demagogues.”

Then, back to the answer;

“But to Stay Here, you must know where you are before you can know where you are going. You must seek before you can find, and you must ask before you can really learn to seek. It takes humility to ask, patience to wait for the answer, and faith that the answer will come. These, it strikes me, are hardly bulldozer ‘virtues.’”

In a quick comment to those who’ve been attempting to attack me with character assassination and name calling, I’m sober by God’s Grace. That is my belief and you can’t change that. I also believe that if I am sober by God’s Grace - if God is for me, who can be against me. 2nd Step, 3rd Step and 11th Step. Figure that out…

For the others of you who’ve so graciously been offering your experience, strength and hope - thank you. Thank you so much. You make each day the gift it is along with my wonderful sober friends over here, off cyber space.

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POSTED IN: Second Step