In a much-neglected novel of a much-neglected American author, the following exchange takes place between the wealthy characters:

"It was considered very difficult for us [the wealthy] to get into the kingdom of heaven, you know .... And there certainly are some things against us. Even when the chance was given to us to sell all we had and give it to the poor, we couldn't bring our minds to it, and went away exceeding sorrowful."

... "That always seems to me to be the most pitiful thing in the whole Bible," said Alice, from her place. "To see the right so clearly, and not to be strong enough to do it."

"My dear, it happens every day," said Mrs. Brinkley.

Like the privileged cast of this novel, we too are wealthy in Program. We've worked hard at our Steps, and we've received the benefit of doing so. Perhaps -- like these characters -- we place a little too much emphasis on the literal wealth and not so much on the spiritual.

Faced by Steps 10, 11 and 12, it can be easy for us to turn away and instead pursue a recovery path based on the repetition of the first nine Steps. If we are fortunate, we may eventually have to capitulate and focus our attention on those last three Steps, whatever the personal cost. But better face the prospect of a new and uncertain life lived in the realm of the Spirit than to be -- in Alice's words -- so pitiful that, though we see the right so clearly, we do not have the strength to do it.