The Rocks of AA

ALL members of Alcoholics Anonymous who are honest with themselves are sober. Some are reluctantly sober. Others are passively sober. Some are happily sober. Others are joyously sober. Why is there a difference? It's the quality of their sobriety. Sober is sober, you may say. If a guy or the gal isn't drinking then he's sober. If he or she is drinking then he or she isn't sober. That's all there is to it. But that isn't all there is to it. A ride on the water wagon will bring sobriety, at least for the duration of the ride. But it's likely to be a pretty low grade of sobriety. It's a reluctant sobriety, the I-don't-like-this-but-I've-got-to kind. The rider is so sorry for himself he won't even talk to the driver. He might just as well be going through a tunnel for all the passing scene means to him. Some members of AA are like that.