Whenever I walk in a London street, begins a children's poem:

I'm ever so careful to watch my feet ....

Why? Because if you walk on the lines between the paving stones, instead of right on the paving stones themselves, you'll be eaten by

... the masses of bears,
Who wait at the corners all ready to eat
The sillies who tread on the lines of the street ....

We can smile at this childish thinking, but it's not so funny when we reflect that many of us continue with the same sort of thinking well into our recovery. If we are good, if we work Steps 4 thru 9 the way we should, if we pray and meditate and work with others, then the bears won't get us and nothing unpleasant will happen to us ....

But that's not the lesson of Steps 10, 11 and 12. If we work those Steps, we'll still have pleasure and pain, joy and sadness, just the same as if we didn't work them. And we'll still end up dead. The difference will be that we suffer far less ... and putting an end to suffering is what Program is really all about.