Came home today from a meeting and a meeting after the meeting. The latter proved something to me that I have known for a long time. The BB tells us how unlike other people we are. But how alike we, who are in the program, are.
That’s what was going on with two friends of mine and myself, as we sat drinking coffee and sharing with one another. And the more we shared, the more alike we recognized we were. Sure, we weren’t like other people, they can drink and we can’t. And what we shared just went to prove how different we are than those other people.
For one thing we had in common is that we really never grew up. I could see the disease we suffer from so clearly. The mental, the spiritual, and the physical parts of alcoholism was right there in front of us. Our stories of our drinking and what it did to us certainly made the physical part of this disease clear. There was no doubt, as we shared the mental and emotional problems, like immaturity, how similar we are. And the struggle with the coming to believe and practice the 11th Step and having a spiritual awakening, so that we wouldn’t have to drink again, was evidence of our “alikeness”.
It was also another demonstration of the We in this program. The evidence that what we can’t do alone we can do together. The basic need of the sober alcoholic. I need others to help me stay sober. One alcoholic talking to another alcoholic. One alcoholic listening to another alcoholic.
Anyway, when I got home, I sat down and thought about this gift we have been given; one another. It made me so grateful, not only to know this, but to experience this. Both men expressed the same thing as we parted. It was a wonderful way to top off another day sober.