Somewhere in Richard II or III or one of them Bolinbroke's or Lancastrians or someplace, the scheming, conniving SOB of a usurper to the throne utters the line, "the first thing we do, we kill all the lawyers."
Now that's always sounded like a fine idea to me. Oh, I don't have anything, per se, against them, aside from the fact that most of my adult life has been consummed, one way or another, by them.
Let me explain. I met the future ex in 1979. He was a lawyer. For MegaBank here in NYC. He was 19 years older than me and I instantly wanted him for my daddy (caretaker, protector and ATM). 15 years later I was enormously successful on Wall Street and a falling down wreck of a drunk. That's how happy I was with the lawyer (he had control issues). When I left him I said to myself, "well, THAT'S THAT. No more friggin' lawyers."
Bzzzzt. Wrong. Thank you for playing.
My next flingette was with some flack in Hollyweird who, whenever he wanted to avoid talking about something that made him uncomfortable (like how much money he owed me) would resort to saying, "Oh, I can't talk about that now. I'm up to my ASS in lawyers out here." And that would be the end of that discussion.
When the money, and he, were finally gone and I hit bottom and skidded into 12-Step recovery and slowly crawled back out of the hole I'd dug, towards the light...
God said, "He needs to be taught a lesson. I will give him a job... working for lawyers."
And so I do. And so I HAVE, since 1999. Over the years I've made my peace with working with them. Hell, I've even made my peace at sharing space in 12-Step meetings with them.
But today God went right over the top. At the end of the meeting this morning, Mr. "X", an attorney who actually has a year or two more of sobriety than I do, pulled me aside and, sotto voce, asked me if I would be willing to serve as his "interim sponsor." He said that he liked what I have. That's recovery lingo for "I see things in you and your behavior that I would like to emulate."
I've had to sleep with them, get taken to the cleaners by them and work for them.
Now they expect me to help them get sober.
What next?
4 comments:
I suspect God has had Her eye on you for a very long time.
Well, yes, that's true.
She works in mysterious ways, that one does.
but what happened at the dinner with your blast from the past. Inquiring minds want to know.
(lawyers suck until you need one. then they don't)
ACK, I forgot to update you all regarding the blast from the past.
Being least-coasters we naturally found that Thursday wouldn't work, so we've put it off until next Tuesday.
I'm off next Wednesday, so it's okay if I "stay up late" next Tuesday (I'm leaving for B'more on W'day morning -- I'll be gone until late Saturday).
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