Conventional wisdom- as it would have it, avoid then the deliberate manufacture of misery. I was sort of knocked on my ass again by a guy 60 days sober talking about the wisdom he seeks from the groups. Where it comes from.... I call it a matter of IQ points. In this case, it may be that the IQ points are extremely high as is. All you have to do is listen to these guys talk before the meeting. Guys who worked in the upper offices of the railroad, bankers, teachers, social workers. Guys who have put in time with the systems, have worked out their lives, corrected their lives and can talk about the world we live in today fluently.

The latest of what I heard this 60 days sober guy was rehashing an image of a man in a rocking chair, patiently simply waiting to say that lightning bolt phrase out of the blue that you need to hear. Problem is, you have to be awake for that statement, you have to be awake and ready for anything, you almost won't even notice this guy but then he'll give you what you need to hear at the opportune moment. The other part of it was Tom, the union bricklayer, who's made his way into the business management side of the industry, told the story of a guy who made a crash landing in a field, and struck with the approaching prospect of catastrophe on an epic scale, namely the prospect of certain death, his skill set entirely kicked in-- and he knew what gears to mainpulate, what levels to push, intuitvely he applied all his knowledge of airplanes in an instant in order to guide the ship to safety. That that is what we come to rely on in sobriety. Those sudden moments where we intuitively know how to handle the situation and guide ourselves to safety. How we elude sudden disaster and are saved. With prayer, with experience, with an out-network if sorts. And get through it.