The Preakness

Recently, I was watching a horse race, named the Preakness.  I only watch three races a year and this is one of them.  The story line was that there were two really good horses that would go head to head. No one seemed to mention the rest of the field of horses in this race.  The two featured horses took off from the gate and raced one another, leaving a gap with the rest of the field of horses behind.  Eventually, focused only on one another the two horses ran out of gas, or energy.  One of those other horses, turned out to be the real problem and won the race.  I find this a metaphor for life.  If we too narrowly focus on one issue, we might miss the bigger problem looming in the background.  Example?  Alcoholism.  People who are alcoholics sometimes think the problem is alcohol.  They find a way to stop drinking.  They think they have won the battle.  But like a horse that leads after three quarters of the race, the race is not over till it is over.  After ons stops drinking they still have to deal with the lingering problems that will race up on them.  Like what? Character defects, shortcomings, bad habits, low social skills, low self-esteem, fear, resentments and wreckage from the past that hurt a lot of people.  Wow!  Lots of horses to trample you in this race for sobriety.  You non-addicts can look at it from the point of view of prayer/meditation.  You think if you just pray more, or pray better, everything will be fine.  I have not found it so, but then I might just be sicker than most of my readers.