Yep, you read the title of this blog correctly, shopping carts and recovery.

You can stop scratching your head, and I’ll admit, you would be in the right to have hesitation and confusion after reading the title alone. So, without further delay let me dive into this and start unpacking this topic before y'all get madder than reading someone's life story on one of those facebook cooking recipe links.

At first glance nothing seems more apart than shopping carts and recovery. I mean after all, one is a shopping cart, or as those of us in the great state of Mississippi like to call them—buggies, and the other is, well of course, recovery. I would like to argue though, after looking beyond the surface of this shopping carts have more in common with recovery than we may ever realize. Recovery is an integrity based program. It builds integrity, promotes integrity, and even renews integrity. Integrity is at the core of recovery whether we fully know it or not.  

The shopping cart is ultimate litmus test for whether a person is capable of self-governing, better yet; whether a person is in fact a person of integrity. To return the shopping cart is an easy, convenient task and one which we all recognize as the correct, appropriate thing to do. To return the shopping cart is objectively right.There are no situations other than dire emergencies in which a person is not able to return their cart. Simultaneously, it is not illegal to abandon your shopping cart. Therefore the shopping cart presents itself as the apex example of whether a person will do what is right without being forced to do it.No one will punish you for not returning the shopping cart, no one will find you or kill you for not returning the shopping cart. You must return the shopping cart out of the goodness of your own heart. You must return the shopping cart because it is the right thing to do. Because it is correct.

“A person who is unable to do this is no better than an animal, an absolute savage who can only be made to do what is right by threatening them with a law and the force that stands behind it. The Shopping Cart determines whether a person is a good or bad member of society.” —author unknown 

The shopping cart return forces us to make a decision that reveals our underlying integrity much like how recovery does. Recovery as we all know, is a transformational process, a journey that, if worked properly, doesn’t leave us as we were. Recovery reveals our integrity and then forces us to build upon it. Like the shopping cart, recovery in the inventory step presents itself as the apex example of whether we will do what is right without being forced. Because recovery, without the highest level of integrity, is doomed to fail. So, put the shopping cart back and then go work your inventory with the highest level of integrity you can and watch true healing happen in your recovery. 

Until next time, love y’all and stay unashamed!