Hi, everybody. My name is Richard, and I’m an alcoholic. Hi, Richard. Class of ’74. Yeah. Tell you a little bit about my personality. I came home from a meeting a couple of weeks ago, and there was a telephone message on my nightstand from a very beautiful, highly visible, and extremely active member of AA. And I couldn’t wait to return that telephone call, and when I did, she said, uh, “Richard, would you become good enough to come down to the Spring Fling next week and be a 10-minute speaker?” And my very first reaction was, “Well, she certainly came to the right person for this,” and– Followed instantly by fear, uh. Um, and when that’s happened to me, I’ve learned over the years for, for me anyway, to seek counsel and advice, so I called my sponsor. And I said, “John, uh, what am I gonna do? I-I’ve been asked to do this little thing, and they’ve given me 10 minutes, and I can’t say anything in 10 minutes.” And John said, “Don’t worry about it, Richard.

You can’t say anything in an hour and 10 minutes, so.” Uh, and that gives you a little idea of what my– I’m, I’m cursed with good sponsorship. Uh, but after he took the wind out of my sails, I said, “Well, you know, what– really, what can I say?” And, uh, John suggested that perhaps what I should do is pick two or three things that I know, uh, for myself have been truths or things that I have learned, uh, since I’ve come to Alcoholics Anonymous. So that’s what I think I’ll try and do in this short period of time. Uh, the first thing that comes to my mind that I know for a fact, for myself anyway, is that this disease of alcoholism, uh, from which I suffer is not a singular disease. It’s a family disease. Now, I’ve learned that simply because I know that I didn’t suffer it all by myself for the years that I was out there doing the kinds of things that I did.

I know it more so because my wife used to tell me, “Richard, I don’t know how I do this.” And I’d say, “Do what?” And she says, “I’m living in a house that’s crumbling down around my shoulders,” because we lived in an old house that was crumbling down around our shoulders. “And I’ve got four sniveling little children and a husband who’s insane.” And, uh, I used to accept the guilt for that, you know? I’d, I’d, uh, I’d buy into that, and I was around here for a considerable period of time before I came to realize that anybody who lives in a house that’s crumbling down around her shoulders with four sniveling little children and a husband who’s insane really doesn’t have it all together. Um, uh, and I think that’s what really proved to me that, you know, we do suffer from this thing called a family disease.