I was writing up something on the 8th step today and it brought to mind a meeting in a hospital on the east coast (Red Bank?) about 15 years ago.This meeting was on the floor for the treatment program and was obviously there for the purposes of the patients.
One night, someone who was obviously new but was sort of the "cool dude in charge" was asked to read How it Works.
He swaggered to the front, got clear how much he was supposed to read and started off.
He was, unlike many of his ilk, actually a good reader and it was sort of refreshing to hear the familiar passage read with a new, lively street twang.
He read smoothly along until he got to the part where he read "...here are the steps we took..." where he slowed down a little.
He got to "...came to believe..." through "...made a decision..." and he couldn't quite keep the scorn out of his voice...
Then he came to "...made a list..." and he just sort of stopped and started wagging his head.
As he read ahead to step 9 to himself he cried out "NO S----!!!! - can you believe this s---!!!???" at which point the whole room was in stitches. He regained his composure enough to finish reading, shaking his head most of the rest of the time.
Since I was a visitor, I don't know if he ever found recovery, but in my 25 years, I've yet to hear a more honest reading of chapter 5.
4 comments:
I love hearing someone read How It Works well. I'm afraid that often it is butchered.
Hope the guy woke up to the truth and got sober. How knows??
PG
I can't stop laughing!!
That cracked me up. I wonder what he thought about the character defects of step six.
That's great.
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