5 Words That Can Kill a Quit: ‘Can I Bum a Dip’

Yesterday was Opening Day for my beloved Cleveland Indians (No jokes please… the psyche of a Cleveland fan is delicate at best).  As I do just about every year, I was there to welcome my team back to the field.  Aside from the fact that it was cold as hell (and we ended up losing in 16 innings) it was a tremendous day.

Opening Day is an unofficial holiday in Cleveland (St. Patrick’s Day being the other) and people tend to drink… a lot.  As such, the lines in the bathroom are longer than normal.  As I was standing there in line, I happened to glance over and see the guy next to me opening up a can of my old nemesis Kodiak.

And just like that… it hit me.  If I said 5 little words right now, my quit would be history.  Just 5 words and I’d throw away all I’d fought for over the last 6 years…

“Can I bum a dip?”

If I’d allowed those words to cross my lips, the drunk dude next to me in line would have gladly given me one.  After all, I’m a fellow Indians fan, we’ve got an instant comradeship as we’re standing in line next to one another at the pisser and as a former dipper I know one of the cardinal rules of the dipper is to never deny a fellow dipper a chew.

It’s times just like these where I thank God I’ve got the KillTheCan.org community in my life.  I often hear people say that they want to forget their addiction.  That they want to simply “move on” with their life without dip.  And while this sounds good in theory I’ve see NUMEROUS examples where the act of “forgetting” leads invariably to a relapse.  It’s situations just like this where NOT forgetting will save your quit.

So instead of “Can I bump a dip“, I said to myself, “I’m quit today”.  That’s a phrase that I’m happy to say!