Went to a meeting today where we talked about the insanity of drinking and the solution. The Second Step again.
But later I sat and thought about my early days in the program. And what came to mind was the slogans and how they helped me. Particularly Easy Does It and KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid.
I thought about a couple of instances, where the first slogan came into play in my life. I was driving to work one day and I was late. Traffic was jammed up all the way to my office and I was trying to weave in and out of the cars in front of me. Suddenly traffic stopped and I had to jam on my brakes in a hurry. I sat fuming at the delay, when I looked at the back of the car in front of me. And what did I see on the bumper of that car? Easy Does It.
That made me laugh out loud. Suddenly the fuming and fussing left me and I remembered that I was sober and in the program. My thought turned to I’ll get there when I get there and not before. It literally brought sanity back into my life. And there was KISS in my mind. I had been complicating everything again.
Another time I was asked to go on a Twelfth Step. A woman, who was a psychologist I was told, wanted to go to a meeting. Her first. I drove to her office in Washington and picked her up. Not very forthcoming this woman, so I took her to a club meeting at noon in the city. On the way back we stopped for a red light and the man in the car next to me asked what my bumper sticker meant: Easy Does It. I told him it meant that I was a sober alcoholic. He laughed and thanked me. I turned around and there was my companion, hiding under the dashboard on the passenger side. I never heard from her again.
Still makes me laugh, when I think about it.
At some time or another these slogans have come to play in my life and helped to remind me of what I am and what it is I’m supposed to do. “Time Takes Time” has always been useful to me. To remind me that it’s just a day at a time and what’s the rush? “Think, Think, Think”. I always wondered about that in the beginning, when I was told not to think. Yet there it was to remind me to use my head. To think the drink through. “There But For The Grace Of God” always reminds me of just how fortunate I am to be sober. To have found the solution.
And always, to slow down. “Easy Does It”, but as my sponsor would add, “but do it”. And to stop complicating things and making them worse; “KISS”.
There are others not on the walls of the rooms, but spoken by some of the old timers over and over again. Like the “I over the E”. To think with my head and not my heart. Always I was told to remember my “primary purpose”, to stay sober and not pick up that first drink. That it was about alcohol first, last, and always. “One day at a time”. That’s a reminder to keep me in the now. It’s all I have. Just today. “Don’t analyze. Utilize”. One of my major faults, analyzing. Sitting around thinking and not taking action.
All these and probably others I was told have played a key role in my sober life. I pick up on them frequently and want to keep them in mind, whenever I need them. How fortunate I am to belong to a fellowship, which always seems to come up with just what I need to stay sober. Makes me grateful.