What a world! All I have to do is to turn on the TV and there’s the news is on 24 hours a day. And what news! All of it seems bad and dark. What’s going to happen? It’s enough to upset the most serene of us.
But, think of this: think about Bill’s Story in the BB. What was going on then? It was 1929 and the Market had just crashed. It was the beginning of the Great Depression worldwide. People were in panic everywhere you went and millions were out of work. And Bill Wilson was drunk. A few years later, the country still in a terrible state and Bill was still drunk. Then, seemingly out of the blue, Ebby T. showed up and Bill got sober.
Everything was still the same except for Bill. He had achieved sobriety and was on the way to founding AA with the help of Dr. Bob. Didn’t matter what was going on in the world. Bill and Dr. Bob and all those who joined them had been so profoundly changed that their concerns were not with what was going on in the marketplace, but in how they could help another alcoholic get sober. The world was still the same, but they had entered into another dimension. Or as Bill put it, he had been rocketed into the 4th dimension.
As I scan the presentations on the state of the world, I think of Bill Wilson and what happened and what he did. It changes everything for me. His story is my story. Our stories. Like the man in the BB stated. everything had changed but nothing had changed. Bill was sober and that became his primary purpose. It became the primary purpose of every sober alcoholic from then on. We were all going to surrender to a power greater than ourselves and begin to walk the path set out for us. It was the beginning of accepting a spiritual way of life and experiencing a psychic change; a spiritual awakening.
What’s important? Today. It’s the only day I can stay sober. Nothing in my life is more important than that. Doesn’t matter what’s going on around me. If I don’t stay sober, I am going to die an alcoholic death. I’ve already been there. When I was drinking, it didn’t matter what was going on in the world. I didn’t care. I couldn’t. I was drunk. I was alcoholically insane and dying.
I found a solution to my problem in AA. My sponsor was so instrumental in my getting sober. He literally saved my life. And, if he was still alive and I went to him, I know exactly what he would say to me; “What’s your concern?” What is my concern? My sobriety. My concern is in whatever would take it away from me.
My sponsor also said something else to me. He told me that I was not to pay attention to the news. He said that it was for normal people and that I wasn’t normal. He was right then and his words are still applicable to me today.
Anyway, I couldn’t help but think about this today.