| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| n/a |
Posted - October 26 2002 : 10:55:27 AM
During my first year, and even sometimes now, I hear people at meetings, saying that when they came to A.A., they had to become stupid if they were going to learn this program. At first I couldn't understand this. But lately, it is coming to light.
There are times that things that I do upset me a little, and I'll say to myself. What is wrong with me? I am 57 years old and I should have enough common sense to know better. I was taught a lot of these simple reasonable principles of life while I was growing up.
What I have come to realize is that, even though I was taught a lot of morals and principles, I always made a decision to do things my way. So everything that my parents and teachers and church were trying to teach me, went out the window. And for so many years I always did things my way, my way of thinking and my own decisions.
And none of it was right. So now at this age, I have to start learning all over again and applying action to what I am being taught.
So yes, I have to become stupid so I can learn this simple program and how to apply the action the right way.
Harry
What I am is God's gift to me.
What I make of myself is my gift to Him.
What I am is God's gift to me.
What I make of myself is my gift to Him. |
| 3 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| n/a |
Posted - November 07 2002 : 1:12:28 PM
But I already knew everything there was to know about life, before I came into the Program. Well, so I thought. What I mean by I have to become stupid is; put everything that I think I know and what I have learned, just put it all aside. And be willing to learn, like I am learning everything for the first time. Everything about life and living life, that is. Sure I know I'm not stupid, and I know I have some intelligence. But what is helping me the most, is putting my knowledge, of what I know about life and living, on the shelf. And leaving it there. Listening with an open-mind, and be willing to follow those directions that the first 100 left for me to follow. And do nothing to change them to a way that I feel is better, because I have knowledge. If I was so smart and so intelligent and had so much knowledge, then why am I here?
What I am is God's gift to me.
What I make of myself is my gift to Him. |
| notplastered |
Posted - November 07 2002 : 11:25:34 AM
Rather than use the term "stupid", I prefer to think about this as being teachable. There seems to be a lot of people who come into the program who are told to stop thinking, that their best thinking got them here, that's why they should shut up and listen. I've even been guilty myself, of telling people to stop trying to figure things out, since the first 100 alcoholics already figured the program out for us and put it all down in the Big Book.
I feel this logic is flawed since it discounts people's innate intellegence. It even says in the Big Book that as a group, most alcoholics are smarter and before their drinking got in the way of things we are generally more successful than average. Not the kind of description of someone who is stupid, by any means.
I've had the good fortune of receiving a lot of post college education from well credentialed educators, who specialize in teaching adult executives, people who are older and well educated in their own right. The biggest challenge, so I was told, is not presenting new material to us older folks, but having us unlearn so that we can be receptive.
Alcoholics are much the same. They are not stupid nor do they have to become so to get this simple program. We need the capacity to be honest, open minded and willing. We have to let go of our old ideas, absolutely.
The first 100 who put that together in "How It Works", surely knew what they were talking about.
I once jokingly said to a colleague that I was hired here because I had a strong back and a weak mind. He jumped all over my face and told me that I was there to put my mind to good use and that't why they were paying me.
To be successful in this program requires using all of our talents to get, work and retain this simple program. Taking a drink. That's stupid. The smartest thing I do is stay sober one day at a time.
AA I O U |
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Posted - November 07 2002 : 08:54:38 AM
I am finding out that the less I think I know the better off I am and the better I have an open mind to be able to learn.
Harry
What I am is God's gift to me.
What I make of myself is my gift to Him. |
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