Hi All,
     Yep, I'm out of the cage, with crayons in hand and permission from the boss.
     I was thinking about being "smart" or "dumb". I've been termed as both, individually and collectively on one occasion or another. Before fairly recent times being termed as either I wasn't able to accept gracefully. Usually I'd give some lame excuse or other verbal diversion, depending on the situation.
     When I got into AA there where those that told me you can be too smart for the program, but never too dumb.  I now beg to differ a mite. I really think that success in this program depends on two things; the phrase "If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any length to get it..." and Ego. You can really want to be happy, joyous and free, but not willing enough. You can have an ego the size of a case of whiskey and not get past it to admit you can't do it yourself. Exactly what circumstances that have to occur to breed this correct inverse ratio of willingness to ego will probably depend on the person.
     Anyway, the point to this is, the people that came up with this program were not dumb or uneducated. What the did have was the capacity to put their ego in their back pocket and look at things with an awesome sense of humility, realizing that all the good things they had (including their "smarts" and the quality of their sobriety) were not due to to anything they had done. It doesn't matter one whit whether you have a PhD or are a high school dropout - if you have the ability to hold that alcoholic ego in check and are willing - you can have what they had...

Nuff said,
Dennis