I have always loved to travel, but I was afraid to fly. To overcome my fear of flying, I took flying lessons at the airport, on a Beechcraft Sport single engine airplane, and got a license. Once I understood airplanes, the FAA, and the air traffic control system, I lost my fear of flying. The keys to the whole system are following directions and doing the maintenance before every single flight. Most pilots are fanatical about maintenance. I have been on airliners where the pilot refused the plane because one toilet wouldn’t work. Everything on that airplane has to be in proper shape or the pilots refuse it. Safety is number one.
I no longer qualify to fly, but the instructions are still in my mind. The disciplines required fit well with recovery. Page 85 of our Big Book says this:
“We are not cured of alcoholism. What we really have is a daily reprieve from alcoholism, based on the maintenance of our spiritual condition. Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God’s will into all our activities.”
Years ago, I had a friend who was a maintenance inspector for Northwest Airlines in Minneapolis. He had a vision of perfection for every airplane that left the hangers there. If any tiny thing was wrong, he rejected the whole plane and sent it back. I need that mindset for my own recovery.
Last week, Atash Vatsa flew from Delhi to Amendabad in India on Air India, which is a bad airline. When my family and I toured India last year, we took roundabout routes to avoid Air India, which is notorious for bad maintenance. He took videos inside the plane, to send to Air India management. There were no lights in the cabin, no air conditioning, no videos, no power anywhere in the cabin on that short flight. There were also loose panels on the walls and ceiling. He even photographed the tail number, VT-A18, to make his report.
He went home with his video. The plane then loaded 284 more people, for a flight to Delhi. It made it eleven minutes into the air, and then crashed, killing all but one man. A formal investigation may take many months, but it is a good guess that a lack of maintenance will be found as the cause.
We need to do the maintenance every morning on our spiritual condition, in order to safely launch out on our day. I have heard many ways……”Put your shoes under the bed so you have to get on your knees to get them, and while you are down there, pray.” “Put the first step prayer on your bathroom mirror.” Each of us can choose our own maintenance plan.
I take the first three steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, first thing in the morning, like this: 1: “Good morning, John, You’re an Alcoholic. Pay attention!” 2:”There is a God, and it isn’t me.” 3: “I need a fresh third step, this morning, because all my recovery vanished in my sleep.”
So, having remembered that I am still an alcoholic, and that there is a God, I need to decide again to turn myself over to God. How? In each block of time during the day, I just try to do what God wants, which is going to be the right thing, right now.
An aircraft flying New York to Los Angeles does not fly in a straight line. The pilot makes about 20 mid-course corrections along the way. I can’t make one decision to turn my will and my life over, I have to keep making mid-course corrections along the way of my day.
Yesterday, I left Haven for Hope in downtown San Antonio, where I do lectures and groups on recovery, and headed home, 6 miles away. A young woman asked me if I would give her a ride to a Baptist Church. I said OK, thinking it was in San Antonio. It turned out to be in Leon Valley, a half hour’s drive out of my way. I thought “right thing right now” and did it. I hope it turned out the way she wanted, but I did what I was asked.
I grieve for those who died. This is the first crash of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Some automatically fault Boeing, but the 787 is a good design, and I would fly it again without hesitation. I believe that their crash, and our alcoholic crashes, are the result of a lack of maintenance.
