The TSBYSCD Commitment: the Higher-Power struggle and Bob Death's fish parable

pivotal · July YDAU

• When: "this past July" (YDAU), a White Flag Commitment to the Tough Shit But You Still Can't Drink Group, Braintree; Gately ~ten months clean
• What: At the Braintree podium (~10 months clean) Gately publicly confessed he still has no solid understanding of a Higher Power — that when he prays he feels "not nothing but Nothing," his prayers "never hitting Anything," which makes him want to puke from fear; he can only do the rote A.M. "Please"/P.M. "Thank You" on his knees. The crowd Identified. Afterward the sober biker Robert F. ("Bob Death") told him the parable of the old fish and the three young fish who don't know what water is. Gately rode home in Ferocious Francis's car "wanting to both cry and hit somebody."