And then one day, quite by accident, he discovered what talent God had given him. He happened to pick up a flute and start playing it, and there was a snake nearby, and he charmed the damn snake. That’s an odd talent to have, to be able to charm snakes, but he was good at it. So this fellow set about to make a career of charming snakes, and he went all over the country playing this flute and charming snakes. And he got quite a reputation as a snake charmer. In fact, it got so that when he’d come to a town or a hamlet or a city, there’d be a great crowd of people waiting on him, waiting to watch him play this flute and charm snakes. And then one day, as he was playing the flute and there was a large group of people around, unfortunately for him, he played the flute too well. Instead of charming the snake, he charmed himself. And when this happened, of course, he fell out in what can only be described as a spasm of self-indulgence and egotistical ecstasy.

He lay there writhing on the ground, totally delighted with what he had done. And of course, when this happened, he stopped playing the flute. And when he stopped playing the flute, it broke the spell on the snake, and the snake raised up and bit the old fella, and the poor fella died of snakebite. Well, you know, this is what happens to you when you talk too much at AA meetings. You might care if you’ll get snakebit. And I had listened to myself qualify myself as an alcoholic by saying that I got put in the Lincoln Heights City Jail three times in one day once to a point where I decided, in my alcoholic egotistical thinking, that I had a world’s record. Nobody in all this fellowship of ex-drunks could equal my record as a drunk. There are fellows who’ve been in jail more often than I have. There are fellows who’ve been in more jails than I have, fellows who’ve done more total jail time than I did.

But who in the wide scope of AA could say that they had been in Lincoln Heights three times in one day on a drunk charge? Nobody but me. Oh, blessed little me. As I say, this fellowship has these ego-deflating mechanisms in it, and God, as I understand Him, took care of this little thing. One night at an AA meeting in Manhattan Beach in Southern California, I made mention of the fact that I, the great drunk, got put in Lincoln Heights City Jail three times in one day once on a common drunk charge. And oh, wasn’t I the greatest drunk that God ever made? When the meeting was over, a little fella came up to me. I would judge his age as at least in his 60s. He came up to about this high on me. He had a real ruddy complexion, a good, firm, solid, masculine grip when he took my hand, and eyes that I shall never forget because they just danced with that mischievous joy of happy sobriety.