Mary Sue and and Johnny's Blue Crawdad

When was it?  Maybe 1954?  She and her little brother, Johnny, were deep within a Rosebay and Laurel thicket where the water cascades down the side of Wiley Arms Mountain, interrupted by ancient rocks, slick with life, hiding strange and brilliant creatures.  Mother Gravity pulling at the cold mountain water into her subterranean aquifer.  Life.  Abundant Life.  Waterdogs, Tadpoles, Mudpuppies, Crawdads.  These treasures awaited my Mother and her mean little brother, Johnny, somewhere down in Gobey, where Wiley Arms shed her cold water.

The rocks were slick and she slipped.  She fell hard, her head absorbing most all of the impact on the mountain stone.  It would cause her to vomit a few minutes later.  She pled for Johnny to help her, but he had zeroed in on the motherlode of aquatic life:  a rare blue crawdad.  "Johnny, help me up and back to the house.  I'm getting sick."

"Mary Sue, I swear I would but I'm about to catch me a big blue one."

That's all she remembered.  She was sick for days.  She never quite got over it by her own admission.

Alcoholics Anonymous Doctrine for Drunk Sheep

"It is a spiritual axiom that every time we are disturbed, no matter what the cause, there is something wrong with us."  Bill W. from 12 Steps and 12 Traditions.

This statement has been read at one time or another at every AA meeting place I've attended since 1994.  When I see it coming I've learned to simply leave the room rather than attempt to argue the fact that this statement (doctrine from the guru of AA, Bill W. no less, designed to subordinate his followers) is pure nonsense, e.g.:  I find my house engulfed in flames, my family inside, I get "disturbed," to say the least.  I'm not supposed to though, lest I fall into the ominous pit with those who have "something wrong" with them. There may well be plenty of things wrong with me, but they are not revealed every time something disturbs me.  AA members forfeit the luxury of getting disturbed.  What bullshit.

Nelson Mandela - Attorney at Law

July 18, 1918 - December 5, 2013