Nov. 20, 2012 - Just for Today

Just for Today
Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2012

" ...(T)he man with the grown-up brain and the childish emotions - vanity, self-interest, false pride, jealousy, longing for social approval, to name a few - become a prime candidate for alcohol. ...(T)hat is the definition of alcoholism: a state of being in which the emotions have failed to grow to the stature of the intellect. ...(T)here are some alcoholics who seem terribly, terribly grown-up, but ...they are trying to make themselves think they are grown-up, and the strain of their effort is what is causing them to drink - a sense of inadequacy, a childish vanity to be the most popular, the most sought after, the mostest of the most. And all this, of course, is, in the popular modern jargon, 'compensation' for immaturity." - Alcoholics Anonymous, "They Lost Nearly All," Ch 11 ("He Who Loses His Life"), pp 534-35.

Just for today: " ...emotions have failed to grow to the stature of the intellect." Are we to interpret this to mean that we as alcoholics are childish? Not at all! Only that somewhere along the line, something impeded our emotional development that lended itself vulnerable to a false "stimulus," in our cases, alcohol or drugs and a dependency on a behavior that became compulsive. Accepting that my alcoholism is partly an emotional dis-ease, I must accept that abstinence by itself is not enough to reach my goal of a serene sobriety. And this is when I must look to the First and Second Steps - to accept my powerlessness and open myself to the possibility of a Higher Power that might show me the way. Such is the basis of recovery; without surrender to these two basic but essential Steps, the emotions that contributed to my dis-eased character likely will not heal. Today, I pray for the healing to begin. And our common journey continues. Just for today. - Chris M., 2012