ANGER: A "DUBIOUS LUXURY"

  

ANGER: A "DUBIOUS LUXURY"

 

If we were to live, we had to be free of anger.

The grouch and the brainstorm

were not for us.

They may be the dubious luxury

of the normal men,

but for alcoholics these things are poison.

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 66

 

“Dubious luxury.”

How often have I remembered those words.

It’s not just anger that’s best left to non-alcoholics;

I built a list including justifiable resentment,

self-pity, judgmentalism, self-righteousness,

false pride and false humility.

I’m always surprised to read the actual quote.

So well have the principles of the program

been drummed into me that I keep thinking

all of these defects are listed too.

Thank God I can’t afford them–

or I surely would indulge in them.

 

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Those Other People

 

"Just like you, I have often thought myself

 the victim of what other people say and do.

Yet every time I confessed the sins of such people,

especially those whose sins

 did not correspond exactly with my own,

I found that I only increased the total damage.

My own resentment, my self-pity would often

 render me well-nigh useless to anybody.

"So, nowadays, if anyone talks to me so as to hurt,

 I first ask myself if there is any truth

 at all in what they say. 

If there is none, I try to remember

 that I too have had my periods

 of speaking bitterly to others;

that hurtful gossip is but a symptom

 of our remaining emotional illness;

and consequently,

that I must never be angry

at the unreasonableness of sick people.

"Under very trying conditions I have had,

again, and again, to forgive others -- also myself.

Have you recently tried this?"