You Kiss Your Kids With That Mouth?

The Happy Warrior's Prayer

'God, teach me to serve You as I ought;
to give, not count the cost;
to fight, not heed the wounds;
to toil, seek no rest;
to labor, ask for no reward.
Except knowing that I am trying to do Your will'.
-As adapted by Lt. David J., loving spiritual mentor and happy warrior

|...day 59/90 and just when I think the Dark One has retreated back to his lair I witness another pagan ritual.  Never have I been more embarrassed to be a member of AA – the newcomer needs support, but somehow the line to pagan idolatry was crossed tonight.

When I was a boy I remember some veterans on TV tossing their medals into the reflecting pool next to the Washington monument, horrified that they’d so causally defile that to which they so honorably earned.

It's all so clear to me now...if I didn't think it’d feed the collective unconscious I’d of taken my medallion off my keychain and tossed it out onto the sidewalk out of disgust. By God’s grace and His grace alone have I been spared; may I never forget the oath I swore before a God I did not understand on my willingness to do ANYTHING – even follow Him – to stop drinking.  The only thing I did was beg for help.  Thank God I had a teacher who was willing to take the heat to get me to the Power that pulls chronic alcoholics back from the gates of death.

I remember Mr. V. from High School, a gracious aging Rabbi who taught us geometry.  Mr. V. survived Auschwitz – he had the numbers tattooed on his forearm to prove it.  Being a typical Brooklyn knucklehead I ignorantly made fun of the tattooed numbers on his arm – right up to the day he told me how his parents, brother and sisters had begged him to eat their flesh after they died.  He was the last of a family of – get this – 12 – to live.  And he survived by eating his entire family.

The great fact was that he was the most peaceful man I ever met.  He said that the secret to happiness was easy – pray for your enemies and try to help your friends.  That’s it, folks.  Pray for your enemies and try to help your friends.  That’s right out of Page 67:  “God, save me from being angry – this is a sick man.  Show me how to be useful to him.  Thy will, not mine, be done”.

When I asked him how praying for his enemies helped him, he said quite simply:  “Every morning I get up I thank GOD ABOVE that he did not make me a Nazi”.

I understand now, Mr. V. - you didn't suffer in vain - I understand.  In 31 meetings I get to leave, but some of those poor unfortunates will still be dancing around their sad little fire, beating their scrawny chests , chanting their pathetic, profane and quite frankly insignificant little stories.

From the bottom of my heart I thank God from saving me from service to the Dark Side.  As my sponsor has been lovingly cautioning me for years:  “…if you don’t think Satan is alive and well and living in AA, think again.  Satan is a coward, and so are his minions.

We witnessed his dark sway tonight - over and over and over again. What makes his followers so dangerous is that they are simply so addled  brained that you never know what silly, childish stunt they are going to pull next.  So pathetic.  Where does the newcomer fit in with all that swagger?  Remember the newcomer?  The reason we're here?

One more thing.  Mr. V. used to refer to his tatoo as 'the mark of the beast'.  He was right about that, too.

God bless us all, every one.  Love is in the middle.

COG, 1st Cl.|