Why did those old timers tell us not to think and then put up a sign on the wall, which said “Think, Think, Think”? Talk about paradoxes. This had to take the cake.
Believe it or not, I used to think about this every time I was at a meeting and looked up and saw it. I mean my sponsors and others used to caution me not to think. They told me that my mind was too clouded from the the booze I had been drinking, plus all this insane thinking I had. I was told I needed to leave everything I had outside the doors and come in and just not think about anything. I was just there to listen and learn. That wasn’t exactly how they phrased it. It started with “Shut up!”
Someone once said the reason for the sign was to remind me of thinking the drink through, when tempted to take a drink. Think not just about taking the drink, but go through the whole process I would have to endure, until I finally saw the consequences of taking that drink.
But as good advice as that was I began to learn something of value from my sponsor about that sign, “Think, Think, Think”. He kept pushing me to read the BB. And I did. He also told me that I wasn’t just to read the BB, but to study it. He pointed out that the word “text” in the introduction should alert me to why I was reading it. He said to me, “What do you do with a text?”. Study it.
So, I began to do what he suggested. I read, I studied, I underlined and highlighted sentences of significance to me. I even began to write a journal and wrote what I thought about in my readings. And guess what? Even that early on I began to think differently. I really began to think about sobriety.
The words “Think, Think, Think” began to take on a significance for me. A significance I still hold today. Not just “don’t think”, but think what I’m supposed to be thinking about. And really think about it. Sobriety. Sober thinking and sober living. Living a sober life and walking down this road to sobriety.
Anyway, as I was meditating today, that sign came to mind and I had to laugh out loud. “Think, Think, Think” and always think. I do. And what I try to think about is what my sponsor and others taught me. What I learned in the BB. What I heard in meetings. And here I am; thinking about it. Sobriety.