It is impossible to begin to learn that which one thinks one already knows. Epictetus

They say you can’t be too dumb (though usually more courteously)
but you can be too smart to understand the Twelve Steps,
to get recovery. It’s not true, though. Intelligence is not an issue.
But the conviction you’re smart…smarter than the others in the rooms,
than the ones talking to you…than those who wrote the literature…
the conviction you already know everything stops your getting it.
It’s easy to say the attitude…the arrogance…is real superiority
but far too often it’s low self-esteem hidden. And a need to use
intelligence, education, luck of advancement…to hide the fear,
the shame, the need to appear superior, the the way we feel.
And eventually we come to believe the act, the persona, we’ve adopted
and refuse to listen to the source of hope and peace being offered.