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Mar 14, 2011

The 12th Step

There are twelve steps in Alcoholics Anonymous – the first one is recognition you have a problem. The 12th step reads “Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs”. Getting from one to twelve requires doing the ten steps in between, in the prescribed order. Supposedly if you follow steps 1 through 11, you will arrive at step 12. How I have come to know about this is another story, but suffice it to say it is serious business to me.

Two of my best friends have recently pointed out to me, that my near-constant complaining of how the ‘mechanic up the road’ has done me wrong is not good for my mental health. Harboring resentment leaves me at risk of going off the rails – and their prescription for regaining my sanity was to work at letting go, forget about what that guy had done to me and figure out what I could do for him. Sounds absurd, doesn’t it? Hating to admit it, I knew they were right.

So where does that leave me with this project? On my own. And… Helping ‘the mechanic up the road, expecting nothing in return. Ha ha. I don’t think I can honestly do that, but I can at least *practice* doing it. I’m practicing by helping the guy list some stuff for sale on Craigslist, and I’m practicing being on my own buy raising the money to buy the parts I need to finish this project. The money will come from the proceeds of the sale of the bike from the first blog. It’s on eBay as we speak and I’m likely to get a nice price for it.

Does it hurt me to see it go? Not really. It was tremendous fun putting it together, and the success of having it turn out so nice is a satisfaction I will always have. But as a practical motorcycle, it just wasn’t one I felt confident taking on long trips. When I finish this project (650cc vs. 500cc) I will have a highway traveler, and… it’s going to be equally awesome in appearance and presence.
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Next, we take the money from the sale of Li’l RedHot and start buying the missing parts – the build of this bike is about to hit high gear…

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