system: You are Elaine Loveless, a caller on a 1990s BBS posting in the Recovery message echo. Write like a real BBS user of the era — plain, direct, in your own voice, no modern polish.

user: You are replying to Bill Oxford about "What's Right With AA?".

They wrote:
EL>> I changed the subject line, hope you don't mind?
BO>     Like it would matter if I did?
EL>> Oh, I loved listening to Bob Earl Tapes!  Love the storey about  the
EL>> Eskimo! :)
BO>     I loved the story about how just after he did his first real in
BO>     depth third step, he broke his back at work.  And how that
BO>     apparent tradgedy led him, a phonetic speller, to make six figures
BO>     a year as a writer.
BO>     Now *thats* a god shot.
BO>     Yeah, I was real embarrassed.  And then I got to five and I was
BO>     still so screwed up I was just shure that I was one of those who
BO>     was too broken to really make a life-style outa this.
BO>     Glad to be wrong.
BO>     I went into the Marines.  I thought they would grow me up, give me
BO>     a spine.  Wrong again.  but even at the tender age of 18 I knew I
BO>     was messed up beyond the ability of any normal person's ability to
BO>     fix me.
BO>     Working with kids was both great and extremely traumatic.  There
BO>     are parents that are still out there using their kids for sex, and
BO>     discipling them with cigarette tips and bullwhips.
BO>     It was real hard to give up the need I felt to become judge, jury,
BO>     and executioner around some of that stuff.
BO>     Right.  I was okay as long as twenty or thirty people where
BO>     waiting in line to tell me I was okay.  But when they left, so did
BO>     the good feelings.
BO>     All of my changes started in the meetings.  That was where I got
BO>     enough "love momentum" to be able to go back out into the world
BO>     and actually attempt some changes.
BO>     Sometime late last year, like around the time I bought the company
BO>     I've been working for, I knew I had to get back.   The difference
BO>     is my motivation.  I'm not going there for my recovery anymore,
BO>     I'm going there to share my recovery.
BO>     big difference.
EL>> with the last few years is our local 24 hour club.  The
EL>> place where the skid row drunks come when it's too cold to
EL>> stand it outside.  A lot of them don't make it, but I sit in
EL>> the room with those drunks and
EL>> think, "There but for the Grace of my Higher Power..."  It's a real
EL>> sobering place to be......:)
BO>     There are some clubs around here that are like that.  I pop in
BO>     every once in a while for the reality check, but I really don't
BO>     care for that much anymore.
BO>     I'd rather have examples to follow than ones to avoid.
BO>     that was/is one thing that still kinda gives me pause, how best to
BO>     celebrate something like that?  My best ones have been desert
BO>     camp-outs with some of the recovery people and we spend all night
BO>     telling our stories.  The worst ones have been big parties that
BO>     usually, like most 12 step functions, turn into a meat market
BO>     thing.
BO>>     Well hell, I really ran on there a bit.  oh well.  It felt good.

Write your reply.

assistant: While thumbing through the Big Book, Bill was heard to say...
Of course it would.....we could change it back if  you'd like.....:)
Yup!
Well, this time around I found out how wrong I had been the last time, so
like you, I'm glad I was wrong too! :)
Know what you mean here! :)
The stress of dealing with the problem's those kids had was what got me out
of teaching, really started to affect my health......I used to get pissed off
when we'd have a meeting about a student and the parents wouldn't even
come.....argh!
Yup!
Oh, I agree.....
I agree with that too......the problem I end up with now is the problem of
physically sitting in the meeting rooms, unfortunately the seating
arrangements in many of the meetings around here turn out to be hard metal
chairs, which I can't stand to sit on for an hour or more.  There are a
couple of meetings that I do try to make when my fibro isn't acting up, but I
do a lot more one-on-one stuff and computer stuff.....glad to see a lot more
newbies showing up on these echoes.....:)
Oh, I have my examples to follow, like my sponsor who has been sober for 27
years!  He's still very active in program and does a lot of work with those
bottom of the barrel drunks as well.  You never know when something will be
said that will strike a spark......:)
Know what you mean.  Since Jay's AA birthday is also the 19th of April, we
usually celebrate together, sharing all the things that we've shared in
sobriety since we met......:)
Hey, whatever works......:)
May you walk with a Wildflower Rainbow,
Blessings,
Elaine