In Spite of Us

[MajestyJo]

"Please, Lord,
teach us to laugh again;
but God, don't ever let us
forget that we cried."
--BILL WILSON


IN SPITE OF US

Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship designed and
administered by a bunch of ex-drunks whose only
qualification for membership is that they can't hold
their liquor and don't want to learn how. It has no
rules, dues or fees, no anything else that any sensible
organization seems to require.

At meetings the speaker starts on one subject and
winds up talking about something entirely different
and concludes by saying he doesn't know anything
about the program, except that it works. The groups
are always broke, yet always seem to have money
to carry on. They are always losing members, but
seem to grow. They claim AA is a selfish program,
but always seem to be doing something for others.

Every group passes laws, rules, edicts, and
pronouncements which everyone blithely ignores.
Members who disagree with anything are priveleged
to walk out in a huff, quitting forever, only to return
as if nothing happened and greeted accordingly.
Nothing is ever planned 24 hours ahead, yet great
projects are born and survive magnificently. Nothing
in AA is according to Hoyle. How can it survive?

Perhaps it is because we have learned to live and
laugh at ourselves. God made man and He made
woman. He made laughter too. Perhaps He is pleased
with our disorganized efforts and makes things right
no matter who pushes the button. Maybe He is
pleased, not with our perfection, but with our sincerity.
Maybe He is pleased with our trying to be nobody but
ourselves.

We don't know how it works but it does and members
keep receiving their dividend checks from their AA
investments. It is smart to be sober, and it is much
easier, my friends, to STAY sober than to GET sober.


SOMEHOW IT WORKS FOLKS, IN SPITE OF US
-- KEEP COMING BACK! --

- - - - - - - - - - - -

The humor description letter posted was written in
Danbury, Connecticut, around 1956 by 2 (now Deceased)
members of A A. It was originally entitled, "A A Odity."
The 2 members were Bill Mcdonugh, and Bill Starberd,
and was written as they were fooling around with a
typewriter that Mcdonough was required to learn to
operate for his new job.