Uh, now without any further ado, I’d, I’d like to introduce a very lovely lady who came here from , and I think that you’ll be very pleased to hear Holly M. from Hanover, Michigan. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Holly Martin, and I’m an alcoholic. Alcoholic. And up until this time, this present moment, I’ve been having a lovely time up until now. In fact, to tell you, from the moment I stepped off a plane, I had a, you might call it a spiritual experience. That’s about the only thing I think I could call it. When I got off the plane, this is why I say it’s a spiritual experience.

There were three Al-Anons there and two people from AA, and all five of these people were smiling, you know? Now, I guess you say, “Well, what’s wrong about that?” Well, I’ve stepped off of other planes in other places at certain times, and they might have three or four Al-Anons or three or four AAs, and if they were women, why, one would sit on one side of the room, the others would be standing on the other side, looking one another up and down as if to say, “Who’s got on dirty underwear?” But, but I saw a beautiful unity there, which I deeply appreciate. Little warm in here. I’ll try not to keep you all night long. But do you know, um, one time there was a man that used to like to ride his friend who had tried to help him to come into AA, and he would ride him about everything. This man had been in the program for quite some time, and he was trying his best to be a very tolerant, patient person.

So the man started on him one day about his church affiliations, and the good fellow from AA took it very nicely. So he figured, “Well, I’ll really get under his skin. I’ll light in on him about AA.” So he let in on him about AA. He says, “You know, that thing you belong to that they call AA,” he said, “that must be something like Noah’s Ark.” The man says, “Well, what makes you think that?” He says, “Well, you know, with all those many people, it’s gotta be like Noah’s Ark.” He said, “With those many people there, there’s gotta be some gossip, ’cause I’m sure there was some gossip in Noah’s Ark with all those people.” And he says, “There’s gotta be some filth, because with all those animals that was in Noah’s Ark,” he said, “I’m sure there was some filth.” The man had finally come to the end of his patience, and he said to him, “You know one thing?” He says, “That’s about the best definition that you could give me,” he said, “AA is very much like Noah’s Ark.