How many times
have you started a talk like that? (While in the back of your
mind you were thinking, " I really don't want to say the
same old stuff, and I'm sure my audience would like to hear something
new")
I've done that.
I've told about my mother's confession (unearned) to causing
my alcoholism. I've told about soiling my pants (and my self-esteem)
while passed out in my car at a drive-in restaurant.
I've spoken of
despair and joy, tears and fears, hurt, loss and miracles.
That's a lot
of stuff to go through over and over. And even though it is all
true and hopefully helpful to my listeners, it does get stale
in the delivery.
Recently, I've
taken a new tack.
I've collected
a good chunk of the inspirational and thought-provoking tales
I've heard from others over the years and added some I made up
for occasions of my own. I call them parables, because that's
what they are.
But I've taken
things a step further and elected to call them "wearable,"
because a good life philosophy (which is what a good parable
should revolve around) ought to be comfortable enough and adaptable
enough to cover our hearts and souls and minds, the way clothing
covers our bodies.
Jesus was a master
parable-teller. He often taught by telling stories. He had to,
because many of his audiences were experientially, educationally
or deliberately ignorant.
I'm not comparing
myself with Jesus (at least not since I've been sober), nor do
I mean to insinuate that members of 12-step programs are stupid.
(We have to be pretty creative to get ourselves into the messes
that we do!)
Still, I thought
it would be helpful to speakers, sponsors, 12-steppers, therapists,
counselors, "significant others," and just plain other
others to have a supply of starter stories to help get things
started, to make a point that may need to be made, or otherwise
cut through the crap in a discussion or intervention.
Like the guy
who took a two-by-four to a jackass explained, "First you
got to get their attention," I'm hoping that one or two
of the parables that follow fit a parable-shaped hole that you
might be confronting.
And I hope they
wear as well for you as they have for me.
--Hal
A.