Why can't America take the first step?

1. We admitted we were powerless over oil—that our lives had become unmanageable.

That's sure true, isn't it?

Aren't we fighting a war to satisfy an addiction?

And aren't we on "A Merry-Go-Round Called Denial"?

What amazes me is how little the rest of the twelve steps have to be adapted to be relevant to our current plight. Not that I want to politicize the meetings; far from it. But there's a constant drumbeat about "values" from wingers, with the implicit idea that the only legitimate values are Christian values. No, they aren't.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God.

"As we understood" is the crucial phrase that opens the door to recovery to any belief system. It's the non-snarky way to say "the God of your choice." If the Dems would work "as we understood" or its equivalent into every speech and talking point they make on values, the SICs would be cut down to size in a year.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Not of other people; there's quite enough of that already in the blogosphere. Even I....

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

I believe "our wrongs" are not only the wrongs that we have done to others, but the wrongs that have been done to us. The injuries done to us we may hold onto as precious!

6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

God as we understood, remember. Since we're talking oil, why not Gaia? Or even, as Christopher Alexander, the whole earth, where all matter is alive, though in varying degrees (a nice antidote to the "pro-life" position.

And here I'll stop. I don't even think I made it as far as the sixth step.

My point, however, remains: There is a spiritual language, understood by millions of Americans, that does not include Christianity, a church, or God as understood by anyone else.

7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alco oilholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

But first, we have to take the first step.

Thank, erm, God we didn't throw a dropcloth over the wet bar. I need a drink! Maybe a mint julep...