If you want to subscribe to LOL Sober, hit the purple button below. I’m mostly publishing free pieces right now, but paid subscribers do have access to monthly premium pieces—such as THIS comedy special about my 10 favorite addiction/sobriety jokes!
When I first got sober, my life completely turned around almost instantly. I still had tons and tons of work to do in order to actually get better as a human. But almost from Day One without drugs and alcohol, I made a big jump forward—especially at work.
I started showing up on time. I started leaving at the end of the day, not at lunch. I started following through on things I was assigned. I started acting like an adult in the office. (Well, as much as I am actually capable of being an adult.)
A few months into sobriety, I got a promotion, and I really took a victory lap with people in my sober network. I wasn’t bragging about it. I was thanking them, because it felt like “we” had gotten the promotion. Everybody was very happy for me, and I was happy for me. It feels very validating when the world notices the work you’ve done, and that’s how it felt.
Then, about three months later, I got a good job offer from another company, and I told my bosses. In order to match that offer, my company would have to promote me again. And they did! So I got two promotions in about six months. When I called my sponsor and told him the great news, he said, “Congratulations… this too shall pass.”
I was pissed. What an a*****e, right? How dare he rain on my parade? I got all huffy on the phone and we hung up still not seeing eye to eye on how he’d reacted. But I called him back and asked him what he meant. He carefully explained to me that “This too shall pass” isn’t just a phrase that applies to bad things in life, that all things, good, bad and everything in between, shall pass.
I didn’t like that answer so I argued with him for a bit longer. But he eventually said something to me that still bounces around in my head a lot. He said, “You can’t get promoted every day, dude. You have to work hard to establish a recovery program that can stand up against good news and bad news.”
I think about that a lot because I have been sober since 2008, and most of my bad stretches of recovery have been when things are really good. I know, I know, that sounds completely nonsensical. But it’s true, and I’ve seen it happen with others, too. You get promoted at work. You get married. You get two new cars. The kids are doing great. Your liver test results are great. You haven’t s**t your pants or puked in an office trash can in a year or two. You’re crushing it!
That’s when I tend to dial back my program. It didn’t happen when bad stuff popped up in my life. It’s the moments when I truly believe I had it all figured out that I tend to put on the cruise control, and it never goes well.
I’m in a good patch right now, and I have been getting to more meetings than ever. It’s not so much that I am chasing a recovery high. It’s more that I am trying to be ready when the good patch calms down a bit. Because this too shall pass.
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:
A swerving car was stopped by the police. The officer walked up to the driver's side and found a laughing and—obviously—inebriated woman. Shining a flashlight into her glassy eyes, he orders her out of the car.
"Get out?" laughed the woman. "Officer, I can't even open the door."
(Credit: AA Grapevine, April 2005, by Anonymous)
Please spread the word to a sober friend! Find me on Substack… or Twitter… or Facebook… or Instagram… or YouTube. And introducing my web site, LOLsober.com.
