September 2 - The Rubber Dinghy, The Canoe and the Helicopter

Yesterday morning I was at work. It was about 8 a.m. so I still had the full day ahead of me. I got a text message from someone who wanted to know where the A.A. meetings were that night. I get that a lot because everyone knows I'm a member and that I'm always willing to help a newcomer. So I went online and checked the location of one and told her. Then she said its been a while since I been to one are you and Nancy going? Well I wasn't going. I been working long hours and I'm tired. My leg has been bothering me and I'm in a lot of pain and I just wanted to go home and relax after work.

And then I remembered what my job is now. The Big Book, the one we have in AA, says "Your job is to be where you can be of maximum usefulness to God and to your fellows." So my job is not home on the couch, "taking it easy." My job is not going to the movies or going camping with my friends or working long hours to make money I won't have time to spend. I did enough of that when I was drunk. So I went to the meeting. And I enjoyed it. And I was able to be of service to someone new. After the meeting, I came home and relaxed.

I wanted to go to a meeting tonight but its a holiday so I am required to work. I'm not in business for Bernie so Bernie doesn't get to pick and choose when Bernie works. I do what they tell me to do and I get paid and get to keep my cable and my electricity and all those other things I didn't have when I was under the bridge.

But I have to always remember how I got where I am because if I don't, if I start thinking I don't need meetings or I don't have time for meetings or I don't have time to be a sponsor, guess what happens. I can tell you what happens. I become a Jimmy. or a Kelly. or a Danny Boy. or a Fred. or a Robin. or a Brenda. Those were people I knew who got the notion into their head that they were somehow special, that they could do this without going to meetings. They're gone now. They didn't just get drunk. They died.

I know there are people who are reading this who think they're special now. People who forgot how cold it was on the street or in that shed or how it felt to flatline on a gurney or to wake up in jail wondering if you killed someone last night. Get up off the couch. Get your butt back to meetings. You might not realize it but there's a lot of people who are going to miss you when you die.

There's an old story about a guy who was in a flooding town. He was sure he was special and that God would never let anything bad come to him. As the water started to rise, a guy came by in a rubber dinghy and said get in. He said no that's ok, god won't let me die. The water's really rising and he climbs up to the second story of his house. A guy comes by in a canoe and says, get in. Buddy says oh no thanks, god won't let me die. Then he's on the roof and there's water all around. A helicopter pilot throws him a rope ladder and yells down, get in you fool. Buddy says oh no I'm special, god won't let me die. The water rises, he slips off the roof and drowns. When he gets up to heaven he asks god why he let him die. God says, I don't know what you're talking about. I sent you a dinghy, a canoe, and a helicopter. But you turned down my help every time.

Know what I mean. Jellybean.