by Tim » Fri Oct 06, 2006 4:06 am
"Recovering alcoholics have problems with only three things: success, failure and the obvious."
Joe McQ. tells a story illustrating problems with the obvious in his book The Steps We Took where he tells of a farmer who has trouble telling his two horses apart. So he crops the tail on one horse. This helps for awhile until the tail grows out. Next he chalks the hooves of one horse, but the chalk disappears whenever the horse gets its hooves wet. Finally, the man discovers a better way to tell the horses apart. "I noticed," he says, "that the white horse is about five inches taller than the black one".
So many times, what I call the "duh" factor is apparent after the fact in some action I took. It's not anything subtle that requires "the wisdom to know the difference" but it's as obvious in retrospect as the difference between black and white. The truth be told, it's embarrassingly obvious. It's a good thing that alcoholism recovery is lifelong and one isn't expected to graduate in four years or get a PhD in sobriety. I guess that's why alcoholism recovery is often referred to as a Spiritual Kindergarten.
Make of this what you will
Thanks! Seems to me the only obvious thing is this board seems to be thinnin' out. I hope people get back with it again! I miss 'em 
