DriGuy

Honest observation and great post. The one day at a time meme never made sense to me..., ever. Of course everyone lives one day at a time. You don't have any alternative, because it's impossible to live any more than one day, second, or moment at a time. Saying you live one day at a time is a meaningless boast, taking credit for the fact that you can't do anything else. Metaphorically speaking, it's supposed to mean don't try to spend your time in the future or the past (as if that were even possible), or maybe it means don't worry about the future. Live each day as it comes. Or maybe it means something else.

It can mean anything or nothing because the ability to mean two different things is based on the fact that word by word, the saying has no real meaning at all and fails to convey a consistent thought. It gains it's popularity as a poetic metaphor, not by any logic or clarity.

Good Lord! I would never base my sobriety on such a philosophy. When I committed to sobriety it was for life, not just one day. One day?; That's how I lived when I was drunk: "Maybe I'll quit tomorrow, but I'm going to drink today," was how I did things. Without a commitment to tomorrow, next week, or next year, you've got nothing but today, and the present moment is always ephemeral. It's gone by the time you finish saying your clever little ditty.

I needed a change based on plan of precise clarity, not something with enough loopholes to allow me to stray on whims or wind. I needed to commit for life, not just to be sober for one day, half a day, or week. Here today, gone tomorrow is not a meaningful or workable plan.