I’m an alcoholic from the Baltimore area of Maryland, and I’m glad to be here and glad to be sober tonight by the grace of God and the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. And since my first meeting of March 23rd, 1951, I haven’t found it necessary to take a drink or a pill or any kind of a substitute. And that’s no credit to me because I couldn’t go for 24 hours without a drink before I came to AA. And that reminds me of the, the fellow that stood up one night to speak, and he said, “My name’s so-and-so, and I haven’t found it necessary to take a drink for 27 years and six months.” And when he sat down, his sponsor nudged him. He said, “You big phony, didn’t I see you drunk last week?” He said, “Yeah, but it wasn’t necessary.” I’ve forgotten who I stole that one from. But anyhow, I’m sure glad to be here, and this is the 11th Step meeting.

And Step 11 is where we seek to improve our conscious contact with a God of our own understanding, which of course is the, or was the turning point in my sobriety, and I changed from sobriety in, into recovery. That’s where my recovery began. And I’m gonna ask our, uh, anniversary gal, Liz R, to read that little folder on the light bulb because it gives a lot of insights on Step 11. In fact, on the whole spiritual part of AA, which is really the whole program. And I had never read it myself. I’d, uh, glanced at it and, and didn’t know what was in it, and so I read it tonight. And it seems like it would be a good, uh, good way to start the 11th Step meeting to, to see what it’s all about and how the spiritual, quote, unquote, part of AA fits into the overall picture. Because actually, there is no spiritual part. It’s a spiritual program as put together by the old-timers.

And if those principles are followed through by the newcomers like myself and the rest of us, the bottom line is we don’t have to drink anymore, and we don’t have to want to drink. We don’t have to fight booze because I’m a very bad booze fighter. So Liz, read that folder for us if you will, please. Hi, folks. My name’s Liz Rogers, and I’m an alcoholic. Hi, Liz. By the grace of God and the help of you people, the AAs in Baltimore, I’m sober 12 years tonight, and I’m very grateful for it. Thank you. Thank you very much. I wanna thank my higher power, the Lord Jesus Christ, in bringing me this wonderful program and in saving my life. And so I’ve been asked to read My Higher Power: The Light Bulb by Clarence Snyder. And I’ve only read it through once, so, uh, this is not going to be a perfect reading, but I think it’s super.