Things My Sponsors Taught Me

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From the Book

Things My Sponsors Taught ME
By Paul H.

On Joining and Quitting A.A.
You join A.A. by going to meetings; you quit by taking a drink.

My first sponsors were hard-noses. They did not fool around with their recovery programs. One of the A.A. slogans they didn’t invent but would have if someone else hadn’t beat them to it is: “Keep it simple, stupid,” also known as the KISS system. If you’re attending A.A. meetings and you’re still drinking, you haven’t joined yet. You quit A.A. when you pick up the glass because A.A. members don’t drink. Not at all. Simple, isn’t it?

You may be thinking that you’re an alcoholic who has learned to drink socially. My first sponsors told me about a practice in many A.A. clubhouse of having an empty picture frame on the wall, inscribed. “Reserved for the first A.A. member to successfully return to social drinking.” No one has ever asked to have his or her picture hung in that frame!



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