Al describes himself as "some kind of alcoholic". Very humorous even when not trying.
He was told by his sponsor to never prepare a talk.
Once coming out of a blackout, he was stopped by the Florida Highway Patrol going 15 mph on the Interstate. When asked if he knew how fast he was going he could have been honest and said, "I didn't know I was in the car."...but he didn't say that. He managed to get out of it that time.
His wife got into Al-Anon and stopped going to the package store for him. He stayed sober six weeks after his first meeting on the basis of "Take it Easy" and "One Day at a Time". He became a member of Slippers Anonymous. "It was a real terrible place to be."
He did not get to the point of sleeping in the park until after he got into AA after his wife divorced him. He made progress when there was nothing left to loose.
He says that we members of AA were the ones your mother told you to stay away from.
"I never took a step I didn't enjoy including the ninth one after I took the step."
He observes the chapter How It Works only tells us what to do - not how it works.
He does a great analogy replacing alcohol with brocolli showing how insane the alcoholic behavior appears to the non-alcoholic.
He finishes with this poem:
I bargained with Life for a penny,
And Life would pay no more,
However I begged at evening
When I counted my scanty store;
For Life is just an employer,
He gives you what you ask,
But once you have set the wages,
Why, you must bear the task.
I worked for a menial's hire,
Only to learn, dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of Life,
Life would have paid.
? Jessie B. Rittenhouse
(54 min) (18.9 MB) (id#1730)
