Holier Than You

Just been to an AA meeting. As is quite usual of late, I didn’t get a chance to share. At times I suspect I am getting frozen out on purpose. I’m noticing surreptitious hand signals and thinly-veiled whispered messages. I think this may have to do with the gravity of my message. Peeps are unawares that I always tone down my testimony for fear of scaring people. I never lay it on thick. Plus, oddly, when I leave the room, people are referring to me as God, behind my back. I believe they are taking the Michael because I didn’t finish my A-Levels!

There are some very powerful people in my social circle at the moment, in apology. The hub was thriving today. Certain individuals have a very potent message and are very eloquent in putting it across. Nothing bothers us addicts, we are our own worst critics, we have tendencies for self-destruction, what is someone else gunna do to us?

I don’t mind taking a backseat and listening to everybody else, block me out. Suits me fine.

When the time is right I strike like an Indian cobra. Don’t worry, I don’t mention assassins, or black-ops, or who dares wins soldiers, or ninjas, but I would if I felt like I was being made insignificant by an overture of one or more persons squirting his/her/their smallness all over me. How is it smallness, if they are powerful, you may ask? Because for every powerhouse here, there is a bullshitty faker too. Cause and effect.

I gently talk about me, higher powers, rock bottoms, euphoric recall, character ideation, anything that comes to mind…sometimes my mind goes blank and I forget what I was about to say. Some of them here are more passionate about recovery than I am, and fair play to them, they have all the buzzwords and trendy lingo. There’s a lot of ornate terminology in recovery. It was Harlan Coben who taught me how to snatch buzzwords from books and other sources and use them for yourself. The only embarrassing thing is if you repeat someone’s buzzword back to them when they invented it themselves. That way they know you stole it.

My saving grace in meetings, if I become unstuck, is talking to other people’s higher powers in the room. This is my last gasp desperate ploy if I feel like I am getting squirted over. I stole this tactic from Rufus May. Thank’s Rufus. He’s a hearing voices coach somewhere and he doesn’t know me so he won’t mind. If I did it in front of him, which I wouldn’t, I’m sure he’d notice I was ripping him off.

I’ve saved a lot of research papers from my years in recovery. I might write out all the lingo one day, and up my game in buzz words. They can completely shut someone down. Useful as a defence in case someone uses them on you. And they probably will, given time.

Because, despite helping the struggling addict or alcoholic, a lot of recovery is nothing but a load of I’m much cleaner (and better) than you.

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