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 did Step 1, I had zero disagreement. No part of me wondered if I could drink or do drugs any more. I was ready. I had come to believe with 100 percent of my heart that I was powerless over alcohol and my life was unmanageable.
The only part of Step 1 that was a little thorny for me the first time through was the concept of accepting the fact that I need to go to any lengths to stay sober. I wanted to half-ass it. But I realized pretty quickly that if I didn’t live and breath recovery the same way I lived and breathed addiction than I wasn’t going to make it.
So I went to my first meeting and I have been sober ever since. The really interesting thing for me was when I went through the steps a second time. It happened right when I needed it, too. I’d been sober for a few years so my life had improved dramatically and I didn’t have any significant cravings any more. Life was good.
As I went through Step 1 again and applied the concept of unmanageability and powerlessness to the rest of my life, I realized: "Oh my god, it’s all unmanageable and I am powerless over pretty much every single thing that happens in the world.”
That’s a funny thought that you hear periodically from sober people. But when I did Step 1 it sank into my soul and I didn’t just think it, I BELIEVED it. Actually, I KNEW it.
I had a few minutes when I got panicky because of what that meant. It meant I was powerless over my kids, my job, my wife, my car, traffic on every single trip I take, airplanes that I fly in, the weather, climate change, our monetary system, my 401K’s performance, everything. It really hit me when I started thinking about my own body. I don’t control whether my heart is going to keep working. I could get cancer. My knee could give out on me.
When I remember that, a funny thing always happens. I give up trying to work angles, trying to convince people of stuff, trying to squeeze my will and personality into every situation… and I just cruise along, happy and free. It still blows my mind that by surrendering, you find freedom. It’s so contradictory, isn’t it?
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:
HEARD AT MEETINGS…
"I'm on a whisky diet--I've already lost three days!"
(Credit: AA Grapevine, January 2005, from 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.
