Only the 1st Step?

QUITE recently a friend of mine came out with the remark, "Poor Bill has had another slip." Now it was quite natural on hearing this that I should conclude that Bill had indulged again in a little serious drinking. But why, I have since asked myself, must a slip--if the word has to be used--only suggest a transgression of the 1st Step? Ours is a Program of 12 Steps. It does not begin and end with the cessation of our drinking habit. It is the adoption of a way of life. It is the adherence to a credo as laid down in those 12 Steps. And so I feel--once I have found the way--if I should relax in my adherence to any of those Steps--if I should so stray in my thinking again--to become intolerant--to lose my temper and be unwilling to beg for pardon--to speak unkindly and yet feel no remorse or seek forgiveness--I shall have slipped just as surely as my unfortunate brother who had imbibed again. And thus I find myself in agreement with the words of Frederick the Great, "Every man must get to Heaven in his own way."