Booze Isn't Choosey

Diversity on the Patio, a photo by Life University on Flickr.

On the Sunday Big Book call last night with people in my healing community, we finished the Foreward to the 2nd Edition. One of the lines that really stuck out for me was this one:

"Alcohol being no respecter of persons ..."

Every age, ethnicity, gender expression, IQ, socioeconomic and religious background is susceptible to the cunning, baffling, powerfulness of alcohol.



Most people's professions or backgrounds, unless included in their sharing, are not known and, not important. Alcoholism is the great equilizer ... how smart you are or how poor you are or how professional or not you are has no weight. If you got this thing, you earned your seat in the rooms of AA.


I remember how I judged my blue-collar working father for the way he sat in that recliner chair and drank himself into oblivion every night.   I was cocky enough to think:  "I will NEVER be like him."  And as soon as I began to put booze down my throat,   I became just like him and perhaps even sloppier and more deplorable.   Alcohol is no respecter of persons ...  

As I type, I understand now why some of the rough-around-the-edges guys I've come to love and respect in AA often don't make a fuss over how much sobriety time someone has. They often shout after a person says their anniversary date: "Get another day!" They keep things one day at a time because I believe that they are reminding folks to not let time accumlated be a "status" that can cause people to become arrogant, feel superior, and, more importantly, become complacent with their program. As a friend of mine says: "My disease is always there waiting for me -- patient and doing push-ups."

Sitting in the rooms of AA has brought about a humility for me that has helped me soften judgments, biases, and stereotypes. It has right-sized me. What I do in the world means diddly squat when I am seated in a chair in an AA room. I am just another bozo on the bus. And sometimes, converse to my role as a teacher, I need to sit down, shut up and listen to
Good
Orderly
Direction.

Cause booze isn't choosey. And I don't want to be the one it's pointing to.