Meeting Makers Make It?

Mark — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 22:16:29 +0000

I’ve heard this one at meetings for a number of years now and I’m not a subscriber to it. How about you?

I’m not for two reasons. I once spoke at a beginners meeting in Patchogue, NY and during the feedback someone I knew angrily responded to something he had heard with a stinging question “Why do people who work the steps still go out and drink?” At that time I didn’t have the answer for him.

Shortly after, I came into possession of a tape on which a man described how he made possibly the best decision he could have made by talking to an oldtimer when he was in a mindset of quitting AA.

He said to the oldtimer that he’d been going to meetings for two and a half years, had been to over a 1000 and it just wasn’t working so he was ready to quit.

The oldtimer offered that man his opinion, based on experience, that there were two types of folks who came into recovery. The first was the one who just strolled in, got sober and did almost nothing to remain that way. Then he described the second, which he related to our friend was much like him, who, coming into AA had to work their a** off to get sober and stay sober.

He went on with an interesting story. He talked about taking a chair, putting it in a chicken coop for an hour a day for a thousand days. Then he asked if he thought you might change into a chicken had you done this. Of course the answer was no. To which he replied nothing changes if nothing changes. Recovery is about change. Change comes from “these are the steps we took.”