“At some of these we balked. We thought we could find an easier, softer way. But we could not.” — Alcoholics Anonymous (1939) · Chapter 5 · How It Works
Chapter 5, immediately after “any length” — the book naming the detour every alcoholic tries first.
Every one of us shopped for the easier, softer way first: the switch to beer, the new city, the rules about only-after-five. The founders tried them all too — that’s how they could write “but we could not” with such calm. There’s real relief in retiring the search. The hard way turned out to be the only way, which makes it, in the end, the easy one. Tomorrow: Step One.
Honesty