Mail Call for All A.A.s at Home Or Abroad

It seems to me that in the New York metropolitan area, at least, we are going badly overboard in the matter of celebrating personal anniversaries at open meetings. Of the last eight open meetings I have attended, no less than six have been "anniversaries" with, in most cases, birthday cakes with candles brought in during the meeting, singing "Happy Birthday to You" and other antics. I am somewhat loath to bring up the subject because I realize that the anniversary date--whether six months, one year, two years or longer--is a "red letter" day in the life of the member. But with everyone, particularly the speakers on the program (sometimes at inordinate length) telling Joe Doaks what a grand fellow he is and what a record he has achieved, it would be too much to expect that at least some of it will not be absorbed into Joe's system--with a consequent displacement of some of his essential humility and of his hardly-won knowledge that it is not Joe himself but the Higher Power that is responsible for his success. As we all know, too much "laudatory exegesis" is bad medicine for the temperamental alcoholic and, in the let-down after the celebration, too often disaster follows. As usual, Bill F. puts it succinctly: "When we start taking bows (even on anniversaries) we bow ourselves right into the cuspidor."