Well, I want to thank the group for that. There certainly was no need for it, but, uh, I sure like it. I used to get other kinds of plaques, but that’s a whole different story, you know? A woman asked me just before the meeting, you know, she says, “Are you, uh, do you get nervous?” And I said, “Of course I do.” I said, “You know, I’m not a professional at this.” And, and, uh, after I had made that remark, I, I, I recalled an incident that happened, uh, in, at the University of Illinois some, some years ago. I, uh, was participating in a, in an activity there at Huff Gymnasium at the University of Illinois, uh, on alcoholism. And, uh, I was, uh, the speaker on the program, and I was pretty new to AA and still hip, slick, and cool, and cocky, and all of that shit. And, uh, I was supposed to speak, I think it was about eight o’clock on a Saturday night, and they had everybody who was in the program backstage and all of that.

And so as I was walking around, they were showing me where I had to sit and where you had to go stand up when it came time to speak. And they had one of these little peek holes in the curtain so that you could open it up and you could look out into this big gymnasium, you know, and see who’s there. And now I, uh, I had never spoken before a crowd of people, I don’t think, bigger than one hundred at that time. And, uh, I looked out into Huff Gymnasium, and I know from, uh, basketball experience that it seats sixteen thousand people, and it didn’t look like there was an empty seat in that auditorium that night. So, uh, I really got shook up and– but I didn’t want anybody to know that. And about ten minutes after I had looked out there, you know, I was standing around and, uh, a woman came up to me just like tonight, and, and she said, uh, “Oh, uh, are you the speaker?” And I said, “Yes.

Oh, yeah.” And I tried to look, you know, like Chuck Chamberlain or Clancy, as though it didn’t bother me one bit. And she says, “You’re all the way from California.” I said, “Oh, yeah, but that’s nothing, you know.” And, and she says, uh, “I bet you you’re nervous.” And I, I didn’t want to let her know I was a newcomer. And I said, “No, no. Hell, I’m used to this kind of stuff.” She said, “You’re not nervous at all?” And I says, “No.” Then she says, “Then what are you doing in the ladies’ room?” And, and so that, uh, that about tells you how it is with me, you know? I’m gonna talk about a subject tonight that I have to make a little opening remark before I get into it because I don’t want to say anything tonight that will offend anybody. And please bear with me when I talk tonight because I’m gonna tell you exactly how it was with me. In no way am I trying to defame or blasphemize any kind of formal religion or your concept of a God as you understand him.