A life second to none

I have often thought about this phrase that we hear so often at meetings.  For years I've thought about it in terms of equality: all lives are equally sacred and equally capable of joy.  Come right down to it, that's a pretty abstract concept.

At a recent meeting I heard another take on the phrase.  I have a life second to none, meaning I don't want yours.  That, to me is concrete and a challenge.

Acceptance and Love

I'm reading Kevin Griffin's A Burning Desire: Dharma God and the Path of Recovery.  He refers to acceptance as nonresistance to truth, and as such an aspect of love.
Now, let's get clear from the start:  acceptance is not approval.

Fellowship

This morning at my home group we had a discussion about the Fellowship.  It was good to be reminded of what a special thing an AA group is.  People who have never felt a part of anything feel accepted.  People who are afraid of just about everything in life feel safe.  People feel comfortable talking about things they would virtually never discuss elsewhere.  People know they have somewhere to go for help, that every person in that room wants what is best for them.  It's amazing how you can bump into a fellow AA, someone you've maybe had a few chats with, sit down for a cup of coffee and very quickly begin talking about what is really happening in your lives, what you are happy about, what you are afraid of, and all at a level of reality you almost never reach with non-alcoholics.

It is just plain nice.

Why all this 'practical polytheism', gods/Higher Powers vs idols/Lower Powers stuff?

If you have read any of my recent postings, you've seen that I have been making a lot of use of the idea that people are 'practical polytheists', worshiping multiple gods or Higher Powers and idols or Lower Powers. Among the Higher Powers people worship are God, community, justice, love... and among the Lower Powers/idols one could find money, power, praise, possessions.... Why do I find this approach useful, rather than just sticking with virtues and vices or character assets and character defects?

AA and the Culture of Narcissism

In the New York Times of Friday July 15 David Brooks had a fascinating column on the recent Mel Gibson scandal. Most commentators on the Gibson Tapes talk about the racism, sexism, and violence that is expressed. All well and good, but Brooks goes deeper, to the narcissism Gibson flaunts and what it says about our society.
I have often said that in many ways living the AA way of life puts us at odds with our current popular culture. Nowhere is this more true than in the contrast between the humility that AA tells us forms the foundation of recovery and a fulfilled, loving, useful life, and the self-centeredness culminating in full blown narcissism that our culture promotes.

Angels and Drunks

When we choose things, rather than choosing God, it is ultimately our own wills that we are worshiping. (Harbaugh, A 12 Step Approach to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, p.15).

I am a little surprised at how true I find that statement, given the fact that my concept of "God" (if I can really be said to have one) is far closer to the Spinoza/Einstein/Hawking/Kaufman concept of the totality of natural law than to the more orthodox pre-existing, self-conscious, intervening Creator. When I use the word I am pointing to something much closer to creativity than to a creator.
That said, I find St. Ignatius's emphasis on seeing God in all things to be very important. If we are to have perspective we have to look past individual objects to the underlying reality. We have to look at the river rather than the flotsam, both in our metaphysics or theology and in our ethics.