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Do you remember the limo scene from the movie “Big”?
In case you don’t, or have never seen the movie, here’s a quick synopsis. Tom Hanks is a little kid who makes a wish at a carnival that he could be big. Voila, he wakes up the next morning and is a grownass man. He runs away from home and tries to figure out how to exist as a little kid in a big person’s body.
And yes, I am aware that that could be the summary of my own existence at this point.
Anyway, there is a scene in the movie where he goes out on the town with Elizabeth Perkins and they have access to a limousine. They open up the sun roof and hang out the top of the car and have a good old time.
I am writing about this because I recently had COVID and had to quarantine in a room for five-plus days. At first, I thought hey, no big deal, I’ll watch a bunch of TV and lay in bed and have meals delivered and it will be a blast.
Well, it wasn’t a blast. After about 12 hours, I wanted to be break out of Shawshank and go sand down Andy Dufresne’s boat on the beach somewhere. But I stayed put, and it was a grind. Isolation ain’t fun. I made phone calls to sober friends and got to virtual meetings, but I was not spiritually fit.
So when Day Six rolled around and I could leave my underground lair, my daughter asked me to come with her to continue her driving practice. She has her permit and needs to drive for 40 hours with a parent. She’s the one who gave me COVID, so we were COVID safe to be in a car together.
And on Day Six, it was a beautiful 75-degree day with the sun out, and we went driving. She actually has a sun roof on her car, and we put the windows down, opened up the sun roof and played some music.
Let me tell you, I felt like standing up and screaming out the top of the car. I felt free! I was smiling, feeling the wind in my hair, singing Justin Bieber songs… yes, I will sing a Justin Bieber song, especially if I have been in a cave for a week.
So it was an awesome drive. I felt very alive, and I had a moment where I had a corny thought, which was: Why can’t every day bring this out in me? I know that’s a little preposterous to be dancing out of the sun roof of a car every day on the way to work.
But what if my mindset could even be 10 percent as grateful as I felt? Why can’t I think a little bit about all the good things in my life every time I get in the car?
Like, I have a car. I have three amazing kids and an amazing wife. I am healthy. If I am hungry at lunch time, I have the money to buy myself lunch. I don’t feel overwhelming craving for drugs and alcohol any more. I haven’t passed out and woken up the next day not knowing where all that puke came from, or where my car was parked.
Is that actually kind of delusional to be that overjoyed every single morning? Yeah, it probably is. In some ways, I don’t want to be thinking that I deserve to feel so good every morning that I am yelling from the rafters.
But for today, and maybe tomorrow, I am going to enjoy it. It’s good to be alive. It’s good to have the sun shining down on me. And it’s good to feel like a little kid in a big dude’s body once in a while.
This newsletter is a place of joy and laughter about the deadly serious business of sobriety. So, as I will often do, let me close with a joke:
An old drunk, out fishing one day, stumbled across a talking frog.
The frog said, "I'll turn into a ravishing beauty and fulfill your every desire, if only you'll kiss me." The fisherman scooped up the frog and put it in his pocket.
Later on, at a bar, he pulled out the frog and set it next to his beer. The bartender overheard the frog repeat the offer. Amazed, he asked the drunk, what he was waiting for.
The old alkie replied, "At my age, I'd rather have a talking frog."
(Credit: AA Grapevine, January 2007, from Bob M. of Rochester, Minnesota)
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