Sober some 19 years since 1976, Dave starts by identifying and connecting with the newcomer.
"People are gonna want to know 'How did you do that? How did you go 24 hours without drinking?'
The reason we ask you to read the Book is because we think that our Program lies between pages 'i' and 164 of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous - that's where the factual material is on this Program and Alcoholics Anonymous is the basic text for our Program and that's where the truth is."
He says, if you go to a Step Study with 12 people, you are going to get 12 opinions about that Step.
"...and you won't get opinion in the Book.... And we encourage you to get a sponsor because, you know, it's not easy finding your way around this place for a while. It took me a long, long time before I felt like I really understood what this Program was all about."
Dave is married to Polly P, who appears many times on WeJoy, sometimes with Dave.
They are great proponents of living the Twelve Traditions in their marriage.
After this talk, Dave lost his aerospace job. They moved to Birch Bay, WA to the home of their dreams and lost that. They then moved to Jacksonville, FL where he had some major health issues.
But all along, he has stayed sober and Polly has stayed by his side.
(47 min) (10.8 MB) (id#2005)