It has been three years since I have done any significant amount of writing. \u00a0On my last trip to India (I was in India from Mid-May 2008 into early September 2008)\u00a0I wrote seventy eight FWIW (For What It’s Worth) writings. \u00a0Traditionally I do not get the ‘call to write’ when I am outside of India.<\/p>\n
But something happened today that I want to share.<\/p>\n
It is a spiritual truth of the universe that if one of us can achieve a degree of spiritual enlightenment then all of us can achieve it. \u00a0This is not so in the physical world. \u00a0There are physical things that only a few talented athletes can achieve.<\/p>\n
Today I ‘got it right’. \u00a0And because I got it right today, all of you reading along here can get it right in your world, well at least occasionally as I did today. \u00a0My ‘getting it right’ can empower you to ‘get it right’ as you empower me.<\/p>\n
There are two distinct groups of readers here. \u00a0One group consists of those of us ‘in recovery’. \u00a0The other group are what those of us traveling the road of recovery call the ‘normies’. \u00a0So you ‘normies’ may want to tune out here because what I write will seem to you so obvious (so normal) as to be boring. \u00a0As if “Cap, that is how you should act.”<\/p>\n
In Chicago, in the early 1940’s, the following story is famous within the rooms of A.A. The Chicago Central Office received a telephone inquiry for assistance. \u00a0A man said he was in a skid row hotel down in Chicago’s Loop Area and asked if someone could come out and discuss with him what this new A.A. business was all about.<\/p>\n
Two volunteers went to the address and found the room where the man had said he would be. \u00a0The door to the room was ajar and the two men entered. \u00a0On the bed was a derelict who had passed out and was absolutely comatose. \u00a0After gently shaking the man the two volunteers decided that, since they had ventured there, and since the man on the bed was totally oblivious to this world, they would tell one another their personal stories of recovery. \u00a0This they did. \u00a0The man on the bed made absolutely no movement and the two volunteers left.<\/p>\n
Several years later one of the two volunteers was at an A.A. meeting. \u00a0After the meeting a man came up to him and effusively thanked him for helping him to find sobriety. \u00a0The \u00a0one member said, “Excuse me, I am sorry but I do not recall ever having met you Sir.” \u00a0The newcomer said to him. “Several years ago you and another man came to a hotel room down in the Loop and told each other your stories. \u00a0I was so moved by your visit that I too sought out A.A. and am so happy to be sober. \u00a0Again, thank you Sir.”<\/p>\n
The member replied, “Yes, I remember that visit.. I also remember that you were totally comatose. \u00a0We tried to awaken you with no success. \u00a0During our sharing with one another you never so much as moved a muscle. \u00a0There is no way that you could have heard a word we said Sir.”<\/p>\n
The newcomer replied, “Sir, I was not the man on the bed. \u00a0Sir, I was under the bed listening to you!”<\/p>\n
This is germane here. \u00a0I have absolutely no idea who is reading along here with me and who is getting anything out of my thoughts. \u00a0Bonnie Tyler, in the mid-1980’s, had her one hit song, “Total Eclipse of the Heart”. \u00a0In her song, she made mention of ‘Bright Eyes’. \u00a0So in memory of Judy Marron, without whom I might never have entered the world of recovery, I have named you, the reader I do not know and the reader I may never meet, “Bright Eyes”..<\/p>\n
So turn around “Bright Eyes” here we go.<\/p>\n
I am busy getting ready to travel to the other side of the world. \u00a0I am in the midst of projects at my home here. \u00a0So today I was out in my back yard working on the back fence. \u00a0I was actually in my back neighbors yard working on my fence. \u00a0It was in the high 80’s and the sun was beating down on me. \u00a0I had a ladder and my childhood high chair rigged up so I could gingerly climb the ladder and step down onto the high chair to get across the fence to get to the other side. \u00a0Now this is foolish risking physical injury \u00a0which could jeopardize my trip but you gets what you gets with me.<\/p>\n
So, hot and sweaty, I decided I needed \u00a0a break to cool off and drink liquids so I came around to the front of my house. \u00a0In the driveway was the pickup truck of a friend of the 9th brilliance, Danny 48073<\/span>. \u00a0A close member of my innermost circle of friends. \u00a0No sign of him but I found him inside (he has a key to my home) \u00a0wondering where I was.<\/p>\n And so we began to talk. \u00a0Every fiber of my being screamed (silently) to me “Captain we have a ton of things to do so get on with the getting on.”\u00a0 I did NOT get on with the getting on. I focused upon Danny<\/span>.<\/p>\n The victory today was that I STOPPED my being a human-doing and I became me being a human-being.. I sensed that he really needed to talk and that he really needed me to be present and as it turned out this was accurate.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Danny and I got into re-reading and discussing the first one hundred and fifty some pages of FWIW dating back to December 1990. \u00a0Those early writings of ‘For What It’s Worth’ had moved Danny<\/span> to resume writing and to then actually finish his Master’s Thesis on which he had been stalled for some time. \u00a0I shed a few tears for ‘bright eyes’ (an unnamed soul to whom I was writing) and we discussed getting these early writings onto the internet. \u00a0I want to publish them and he said the internet is how it is done now.<\/p>\n THEN we two got into some serious step work. \u00a0As he did the work I sat quietly with him and ate a nice lunch. \u00a0No rush. \u00a0I was totally present with Danny.\u00a0 The ‘doing’ was waiting while I was ‘being’.<\/p>\n And it felt so good. \u00a0When we were finished, we were totally finished. \u00a0I called my sponsor in San Francisco but I think he is out of the country. \u00a0I wanted the two of \u00a0them to connect.<\/p>\n Danny, thank you for the gift you were to me today.<\/em><\/span> \u00a0Our time together was one of those rare unscripted moments that we human beings can only seem to grasp and hold onto so seldom. \u00a0You came first and you came foremost. \u00a0You allowed me to be and not be doing. \u00a0At least for a few hours.<\/p>\n The doing resumed \u00a0with a one hundred foot electrical drop cord out in the dark of an August summer night as the ‘Dream Cruise’ took place on Woodward Avenue in earshot of ‘Little House’ here.<\/p>\n SMILES .. CAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It has been three years since I have done any significant amount of writing. \u00a0On my last trip to India (I was in India from Mid-May 2008 into early September… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,729],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-danny-z","category-india-2011-2012"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/babakaps.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/babakaps.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/babakaps.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/babakaps.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/babakaps.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=110"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/babakaps.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43365,"href":"https:\/\/babakaps.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110\/revisions\/43365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/babakaps.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/babakaps.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/babakaps.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}