The past 2 days have been pretty busy here in Somewheresville. As some of you know, mom left for Maine on Thursday, so I have had the run of the joint for a couple of days. She won’t be home until Friday so I continue to bang around in this big place, with only Sweetie Pie for company, but that’s not all bad. Thankfully I get out of the house and pursue other activities.
At my Friday AA meeting we convened our regular business meeting. Usually there is nothing to talk about, but this time there was talk about how there seemed to be an awful lot of addicts, not alcoholics, coming to the meetings and sharing about their experiences with drugs and drug addiction, not about alcoholism. Whether one considers this a trend, problem, or even an issue doesn’t remove the fact that many sober alcoholics are becoming uncomfortable. Fear seems to be the dominating factor in the worries (“What is happening to AA?”), which could lead to a backlash of intolerance. Bad stuff, really. So I nipped this situation in the bud, I think.
We voted to read what is called the ‘Blue Card’ at the beginning of the meetings. To those of you who don’t know, there are 2 sides to the blue card, one which states that “This is an open meeting…” and one which states the opposite. Thankfully all the meetings are open, so we read the ‘Open’ side. It essentially states that the meeting is open to all, especially newcomers, and that keeping with our singleness of purpose, we ask that you confine your sharing to your problems with alcohol.
This decision will make a fair amount of waves, but such is life. The vote does not kick people out, nor does it keep people from performing service for the group. I hope I have found a middle ground on which we all can stand.
Other news:
Last night I attended a Sobriety Cruise with my friend Lisa. It departed from Albany at 7PM and chugged down the Hudson River for about an hour-and-a-half, and then chugged back. A fun time, really, although there wasn’t a whole lot of mingling. People seemed to stick with who they knew. I think that if it had been a longer affair, such as a weekend retreat, folks would have opened up more. The food was OK to poor, but the coffee was good and the company was the best. I didn’t get home until around midnight. I watched a movie and crawled into bed around 3AM, happy that there was no pressing need to wake up at any particular time. I fact, I may take a nap this afternoon, just to cement the fact that there is no rush today and that the world will most likely be there when I wake up.
I’m in the middle of season 5 of the X-Files. I must admit the stories seem to be getting somewhat hokey, now that Cancerman is dead. It’s as if Satan has been removed from the moral struggle between good and evil, and good still hasn’t won. I’m hoping for more and better conspiracy soon. I’ve seen the movie, so I know I have that to add to the mythology…It is interesting to see the back stories to the lives of Mulder and Scully, though. Scully, although focused on her work, is still very family oriented (Mom, brother Bill, sister-in-law, nephew), wherein whenever we see Mulder he is either sitting in his office doing nothing (and watching what seems to be porn), or sleeping on his couch after watching porn. His relationship with his mother, although loving, seems to be distant. I guess he is obsessed with his job and so he finds little relief or satisfaction outside the office, except, well, you know…porn.
Johnnyboy