Page 59 - The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous

38 ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS

chap having queer ideas of fun. Luck then deserts
him and he is slightly injured several times in succes-
sion. You would expect him, if he were normal, to cut
it out. Presently he is hit again and this time has a
fractured skull. Within a week after leaving the hos-
pital a fast-moving trolley car breaks his arm. He
tells you he has decided to stop jay-walking for good,
but in a few weeks he breaks both legs.
On through the years this conduct continues, accom-
panied by his continual promises to be careful or to
keep off the streets altogether. Finally, he can no
longer work, his wife gets a divorce and he is held up
to ridicule. He tries every known means to get the jay-
walking idea out of his head. He shuts himself up in
an asylum, hoping to mend his ways. But the day he
comes out he races in front of a fire engine, which
breaks his back. Such a man would be crazy, wouldn’t
he?
You may think our illustration is too ridiculous. But
is it? We, who have been through the wringer, have
to admit if we substituted alcoholism for jay-walking,
the illustration would fit us exactly. However intelli-
gent we may have been in other respects, where alco-
hol has been involved, we have been strangely insane.
It’s strong language—but isn’t it true?
Some of you are thinking: “Yes, what you tell us is
true, but it doesn’t fully apply. We admit we have
some of these symptoms, but we have not gone to the
extremes you fellows did, nor are we likely to, for we
understand ourselves so well after what you have told
us that such things cannot happen again. We have
not lost everything in life through drinking and we