So I decided it might be nice to add a link to the AA website, and, being a detailed-oriented type, I thought it might be nice to fact-check. You know, so that I got the right link.

As it happens, the right link is AA.org.

The wrong link is, well, I’m not going to link it here. But I will send you to a lovely article about the lawsuit over it.

So do us all a favor – use the real site, and promise to never, ever go to the imposter. Schmucks. (Not you… them. You I like.)

(In an attempt to write more regularly, it occurs to me to try my hand at the topic of meetings I attend. Hey, if I’m actually going to think about the topic, maybe I could talk in meetings, too. Nah…)

This topic reminds me of the old saying “That which does not kill me makes me stronger. But most things kill me.” And for those of you who say “God doesn’t give you more than you can handle,” how do you explain suicide, nervous breakdowns, homicide, etc., etc.? But I digress.

When I’m in the middle of something painful or tedious or depressing, I find it more helpful to ask “what can I do about it right now?” How can I affect the situation in a positive way? The (unspoken) goal is to help this unpleasantness “pass,” but really the immediate goal is to regain a sense that I have some tiny portion of control. Powerlessness sucks. When we say we are powerless over alcohol, the real sentence is a bit longer, more like “I am powerless over alcohol if I put it in my body or if I let the concept of alcohol have too much space in my brain.” Clearly if we were flat-out powerless, none of us would get even a week sober.

On the other end of the spectrum, when life is good, I definitely don’t want to hear “this too shall pass.” Instead, I try to file away what it feels like to feel good, to know that life is pretty nice, thank you. So that the next time things suck, I can reflect on the fact that things can be otherwise.