September 7
The Reason Became Clear
Someone explains why a particular arrangement usually causes trouble. We listen politely and proceed anyway. Later, faced with exactly the difficulty they described, their words acquire a meaning they did not have before. We are embarrassed to admit it. We may even present the lesson as if we discovered it entirely on our own.
Experience sometimes makes advice understandable. That does not make every preventable mistake necessary or prove we should ignore people who have gone before us. It does suggest that learning has a human pace. We can thank the person whose experience now makes sense, repair what needs repairing, and become a little less superior when others learn slowly. The useful inheritance is larger than being right: it includes people willing to share what happened without demanding that every listener understand immediately.
Whose experience do I understand differently now that I have met a similar difficulty?
A belated thank-you would still be honest.
For the A.A. nerds: Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, Tradition Four, pp. 148–149.