My name is Sam Eddy. Hi, Sam. And right there, you see, I probably lost a portion of the group who demand total anonymity. You know, they don’t wanna hear last names from speakers on podiums and lecterns. And now I’m probably going to upset and piss off a couple more groups. I be a recovered alcoholic. Well, I took the, uh, the group that don’t like four-letter word, and I used that, so they’re.. part of them are probably turned off now. And then there’s another group in Alcoholics Anonymous who it doesn’t matter where they get, how wonderful things become or they are or what’s going on around them, demand that they’re still recovering alcoholics even if they have 25 or 30 years. I, I don’t understand that. I, I cannot conceive that, uh, Bill had that in mind when he used the word recovered 10 times in the book, in the first 164 pages. When he, uh, used the word recovering 19 times, and you know, that, that’s a beautiful word, recovered.

It says you have done did it, and that’s why I came to Alcoholics Anonymous, because I was done and I wanted to do it. So now, uh, you know, I, I, I need to tell you what I’m not, and then maybe you can figure and help me figure out what I am. Uh, first of all, I’m not an expert, I’m not an authority, I’m not a teacher, nor am I a preacher. I am not a guru, nor am I a master. I’m a spiritual being having a human experience, and that wraps it up. Uh, you know, my higher power works in ways strange and mysterious, and before, uh, uh, this session, when the other session ended, Jim came up to me and he said, “I’m gonna read a portion of, uh, the Big Book. Is there something that you particularly would like me to read?” And it’s that portion of Chapter Four that has meant so much to me in over 30 years in Alcoholics Anonymous.

Now, you need to know that it’s insignificant, but I had my last drink of alcohol, mind-altering chemical, bre- beverage, drug, or whatever else on the 13th of November 1957. Whoo. Now I need to ask you this out here in the audience, how many of you in this room have over 30 years? I’m the only one? I have license to steal. I can get away with anything. Now, there’s a portion in the Big Book.. How many people here are under 40 years of age? God, I love that. Because 40 year, under 40 years of age, you’re a young person, see, according to the definition of young people in Alcoholics Anonymous, and that’s where I am. I’m 30. See? And the music to my ears is when I hear your loving laughter coming out of your smiling faces because you know what that tells me? It tells me that I’m standing up here loving you, and you’re sitting down there loving me, and I don’t know how you can beat a deal like that.