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Now that I have a few hundred bone-dry days under my belt, there is a great temptation to reduce AA to an unthinking formula. You know the general formula I mean: Attend your weekly meeting. Crack a joke with the fellow victims and toss out a platitude, receiving same in return. Do your part to keep the meeting short, sweet and simple, avoiding harrowing descriptions and the discussion of murky personal problems, best forgotten or left to the psychiatrist. Tell the newcomer to keep coming back and it will rub off on him. Do a little Twelfth Step work, but only a little. (Don't want to become an AA buff.) Take a daily dip into the inventory-meditation-gratitude business. (Made some mistakes today, God. No surprise to you, I'm sure. Help me do better tomorrow.)