St. Patrick’s Day

St. Patrick’s Day is fast approaching. In Savannah, Ga., USA it is special since we have the second largest St. Patrick’s Day parade in the country. (NY, of course, is first). Making the guess that this may very well be brought up at some meeting somewhere in the next week, I’m going to take this opportunity to reprint last year’s entry on the topic…

Any Excuse Will Do…

A newcomer lady was concerned the other night about having a difficult time staying away from the first drink on St. Patrick’s Day here in Savannah. We have the second largest St. Patrick’s Day parade in the country. After the parade there will be approximately 300,000 people gathered together on River St. downtown primarily for the purpose of getting trashed on alcohol. It’s a beerfest.

Funny, but coming from New York where the first largest St. Patrick’s Day parade is held, I couldn’t help but remember that any excuse to drink would do when I was drinking. TGIF. New job. Wedding. Funeral. Got fired. No Sex. Wrong kind of sex. Dirty diapers. Money. Bills. Football game. Baseball Game. Basketball game. July 4th. New Years. Stress. To relax. Christmas. Easter. You ignored me. You yelled at me. You disagreed with me. Too hot out. Too cold out. Picnic. Christening. Anniversary. Barbeque. Power went out. Washing machine broke. Dishwasher broke. St. Patrick’s Day was just another day when the beer drinkers drank green beer and found themselves in the bathroom a lot, losing time from their drinking. I had long since passed that “silliness.”

You get the idea, right? If an alky really, truly, wants to drink we’re going to drink. It would certainly help if we stayed away from places like River St. in Savannah, Ga., on St. Patrick’s Day night because it is hard to imagine a legitimate reason for being there other than drinking on that night, unless, of course, you’re a policeman ready to fill up the paddy wagon.

How important would it be to not be at this one – your first time trying to get sober? Well, it could be your life, no? How many of us throughout our lives can recall reading the Sunday or Monday morning papers with their announcements of the alcohol related arrests, accidents, and deaths? We’ll find out that alcohol won some battles over this coming weekend, for sure.

Any day an alcoholic doesn’t drink is a victory over death!

I wonder how many other places there are besides the bars downtown where someone who really wanted to drink could find alcohol. Hundreds? No doubt, at least. Many will likely stay home, watch the parade on their TV while “sipping” a cocktail in the safety of their own living room. I’m rather sure that there’ll be an alky or a couple of ‘em, doing what we do without going downtown today.

Go to a meeting. Go to many meetings. Spend the day at meetings and with your sponsor. Call your sponsor once, twice, a number of times. Check up on your best AA friend. Read the Big Book. Help a newcomer. If you have a month you have something someone with a day doesn’t have.

Work a step. Work a lot of steps. Buy a new journal, pick up your 12 and 12 and start writing. Do an inventory. Identify shortcomings. Ask for your character defects to be removed. Hit your knees. Hit your knees again. And again. Raise your thought consciousness to the God you understand. Meditate.

Take an Eleventh Step walk. Take the dog with you. Take the dog and your sponsor with you. Take the dog, your sponsor and a newcomer with you.

“In thinking about our day we may face indecision. We may not be able to determine which course to take. Here we ask God for inspiration, an intuitive thought or a decision. We relax and take it easy. We don’t struggle.” (page 86)

“Avoid then, the deliberate manufacture of misery, but if trouble comes, cheerfully capitalize it as an opportunity to demonstrate His omnipotence.” (page 133)

My hope for you is that by reading this rambling perhaps you’ll be able to realize that there are many, many, many other things that can be done at times like this that are not “normal” for us but are certainly different than the way we used to act. Ways that can help save our lives today rather than aid in our death. Take care…

[Graphic “Leprechaun Dancing Riverdance Style” found at Animation Playhouse]