Meeting on anonymity will be shortly after closing. My name is Gene, and I, too, am an alcoholic. Hi, Gene. And in identifying as an alcoholic, I base that identification on my interpretation of the definition of the word alcoholic as it’s defined in the third chapter of the book Alcoholics Anonymous, wherein it says that we alcoholics are men and women who have lost the ability to control our drinking, and that’s all it says. Doesn’t make any reference to how much you drank, what you drank, where you drank, or what happened as a result of your drinking. Nowhere does it say to qualify as a member of AA or as an alcoholic you’ve got to drink wine, spend time in skid row, get married five or six times, and to the same woman. Go to all them institutions and things like that. I, too, uh, owe a debt of thanks to all of you for, uh, letting me participate in this, uh, lifestyles of the rich and famous up here.

This, uh, this certainly is an enchanting place, and it’s, uh, very conducive to reminding us how small a part we really are in, in this world. Uh, I want to thank the people who invited me here. Uh, first two guys I met was Henry and Wes. I didn’t know whether I was at an AA conference or a tattoo parlor. How about Joe C? Did you all get a look at Joe C this morning with that jersey he’s got on? Looks like he should be selling flowers at the airport, for Christ’s sake. But like any gathering of alcoholics, you know, you meet old friends and you meet new friends, and, uh, the true spirit of the fellowship, you know, exudes in places like this. Uh, I- I’m gonna say something now that might be a little controversial, but, uh, please accept it, uh, from my heart. It’s just sort of a feeling that I have, uh, maybe not a doctrine that should be followed by those of you who are relatively new to our program.

But, uh, I make this statement in, in, in, in full truthfulness with myself that, uh, these kind of activities, your shindig, your conference, your get-togethers, or whatever, are an essential part of my recovery, you know. Uh, I’ve often said that, and please understand me when I say this, that if all my sobriety represented today was that five or six nights a week I would go to some church basement to drink that shitty coffee and eat them lousy cookies- .. sit around and listen to our bullshit over and over again, that I’d give a hell of a lot of thought to going back to drinking, you know. Because I didn’t stop drinking to stop living. Uh, I stopped drinking to live because that’s what Bill promised me in his writings. He said that Alcoholics Anonymous is a program designed for a new way of life, new way of life, and that’s exactly what I wanted. I wanted a new way of life.