The story is told of two not very bright prisoners who escaped from jail. They got well away from the prison walls, found some clothes, and made their way into town. To their delight, there was a large map in the town square; but as they looked at it the first prisoner shook his head sadly, and pointed to a large arrow in the middle of the map that said: "You Are Here."

He turned to his companion and said:

"We might as well give up, Paddy. They know where we are."

The good news about working the last three Steps is that they are the path to true freedom in Program. Progressively free from preconceptions about who we are, what we are "supposed" to do, and where we are "supposed" to go, we find that there are fewer and fewer constraints upon us. The bad news is that we get to do this only if we abandon our "map" of the way things are meant to be, and instead resort to a map rather like the one the prisoners found -- with one exception. All the map contains is an arrow and the words "You Are Here."

One of the reasons many people in Program prefer to stay in Steps 4 thru 9 is that those Steps provide a map or a guide. Admittedly, they are supposed to constitute a map that points to Steps 10, 11 and 12; but for many of us it is easier simply to remain in the early Steps. All right, we say, we are not getting anywhere; but at least we can console ourselves with knowing exactly where we are. And there we'll stay, until some grace-based crisis in our recovery forces us to move on.