Mission

Yesterday I spent many hours on the phone.  It was nice.  I talked with a sponsee, with my sponsor, with my brother, with an old beau, and with a blogger.  It was in talking with another blogger that I got some perspective on my problems here on my blog.  I said maybe a month ago that I needed to have a mission statement.  Well, maybe I won't have a mission statement, but I am going to tell you all who I am.  

I am a sober member of Alcoholics Anonymous.  

I have been sober since July 24, 1984.

I am not here to debate that.  

If you have found an easier, softer way, that's nice, but I really don't care.

I am a big book thumper.  

If it is not in there, I think it is your opinion.  

Your (and my) opinion may be interesting, but I prefer evidence based recovery.

I am not here to debate the big book.

I go to meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous.

It is there that I get to be with people like me.  

It is there that I met my sponsor and my sponsees.  

Meetings keep me on an even keel.

I am not here to debate the merit of AA meetings. 

 

I love the people of Alcoholics Anonymous.

They are some of the most wonderful and awful people on earth.

They are people like me.

I am not here to debate or defend the behavior of myself or other AA members.

And now, not AA related, but who I am as a human being:

I am a Roman Catholic.

I love my Church, all of it, good and bad.

I thank God and AA for bringing me back to it (at 7 years sober).

I am not here to debate that.  

I am a citizen of the United States of America.

I love my country with my life.

My family has defended this country (and some of them died doing it) for hundreds of years.

If you don't like the US of A, fine, but I am not here to debate that with you.

I am 57 years old.  

I have lived through lots of stuff in my life.

If you are young and have great ideas that is fine, but 

I am not here to debate them with you.

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What am I here to do?  I am here to share my experience, strength, and hope with you.  I made a commitment to do that on a daily basis, and on an honest basis.  I am a fully alive human being, living life on life's terms.  Sometimes it isn't pretty.  Sometimes I can get into a snit.  But I don't have to stay there.  I have a program that keeps me out of festering resentments and other crippling attitudes.  

I write about living sober, which is mostly not about sobriety at all.  But without sobriety, I would not have any of the other stuff to write about, I can assure you.  I write about the joys and pains of living life.  I think the underlying message of my blog is that I am living my life sober.  I fully intend (one day at a time) to stay sober for the rest of my life.  

I got a comment from a woman named Willa over the weekend.  She just celebrated 3 years of sobriety in February.  When she started commenting on the blog, she would give me the count of days that she had been sober. I am so thrilled to know that there are people like Willa out there and that is reason enough for me to share my experience, strength, and hope.

I know this post is kind of self-indulgent, but I felt I needed to say this stuff.  Thank you kind readers, as always.