Election Day 2008

The incredible excitement and the inescapable historic nature of this past election night reminded me that it was not long ago that I hated election day.  It never had anything to do with the politics, the candidates, issues of the day or the long lines at the polling stations.  My distaste for the first Tuesdays in May and November was simply rooted in the fact that in the State of Indiana the sale of alcohol is prohibited on those days until 6:00 PM.  A relic from the Prohibition era when saloons sometimes served as polling stations,  Indiana is only one of four States that still clings tenaciously to it's temperance traditions.  

 

As a closet alcoholic for more than two decades, Election Day was such an incredible inconvience to me, one for which I was perennially unprepared and resented each year.  But today with the help of my higher power and 12 Step programs I can look forward to exercising my patriotic right and celebrate the democratic process without being restless, irritable and discontent. 

 

Today I look forward to election day and that is just another gift of recovery.