In Sickness and in Health

I have often thought of AA as a kind of marriage. It doesn't take too much imagination to find the parallels . . . once in a while we come across an example of sharing so deep in its meaning and effectiveness that the image of "marriage" in its broader spiritual aspect is inescapable. I once heard a definition of marriage as "the true inward forming of each other"--it would be absurd to limit this concept to the relationship of men and women. It also applies most accurately to the creative fellowship that exists in AA. I thought of this recently when the letter below was handed to me by an AA friend. He had received it at a time of deep depression which had come upon him after many years in AA. As a result of the shared strength given him through this letter, my friend is out and away and back on the beam . . . and wants in turn to share this with the rest of us, in the hope that it might heal someone else as it did him--H. W., Staff