Education of a Drunk

I WAS in a closed meeting of AA. An intelligent young fellow spoke up when I, a happy coot, aged 58, had finished. He said AA is a spiritual rather than a religious program. I had been emphasizing, again, how very much the spiritual side of the program is helping me. After the meeting I had a fine talk with my young friend, "I thought there might be some new people here and they wouldn't understand," he reminded me. AA isn't a hymn shouting movement though spirituality definitely does enter into it. Some fellows simply announce in their positive way that they have a belief in a higher power and they stop there. There are atheists who latch onto AA. Each man or woman gets the program in his or her own way. . . .