Carrying the Message

On joining AA, I was to find that a necessary part in making amends was a financial one. This meant a new budget--a Spartan one.

Hamburger was to play an important part in this budget.

I never had liked hamburger and I must confess I didn't relish the idea. Think, Think, Think. I found a way to make it more palatable. With it I mixed finely chopped onion, salt, pepper, spices and, when served with a tasty gravy, I found it wasn't at all bad.

Because of booze I had lost many things including my job, but now because of my sobriety I was offered a position with my old employer for whom I had worked sixteen years--but not in a supervisory capacity. I was back where I started, taking orders from men I had previously trained.

At home I had to eat hamburger; at work I had to eat crow, and it wasn't one bit more palatable. So I found a way and here's the recipe: mix with finely chopped humility, salt with tolerance, spice with patience and understanding, add a few gobs of ego and (as my sponsor suggests) eat it in an atmosphere of gratitude.

I don't find it at all bad. If it sticks in my throat on the way down I find, on reflection, that I have omitted one or more of the ingredients. The time may come though, when to avoid spiritual starvation, I will have to eat that crow--beak, bones, feathers and all!

"It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools." Ecclesiastes, 7:5.