FREEDOM FROM “KING ALCOHOL”
. . . let us not suppose even for an instant that we are not under
constraint. . . . Our former tyrant, King Alcohol, always stands ready
again to clutch us to him. Therefore, freedom from alcohol is the
great “must” that has to be achieved, else we go mad or die.
As Bill Sees It, p. 134
When drinking, I lived in spiritual, emotional, and sometimes, physical
confinement. I had constructed my prison with bars of self-will and
self-indulgence, from which I could not escape. Occasional dry spells
that seemed to promise freedom would turn out to be little more than
hopes of reprieve. True escape required a willingness to follow
whatever right actions were needed to turn the lock. With that
willingness and action, both the lock and the bars themselves opened
for me. Continued willingness and action keep me free–in a kind of
extended daily probation–that need never end.