Carrying the Message

In the article, "A Gripe: How Many Do We Drive Away?" in the February issue, the author argues for matching sponsors to newcomers as much as possible with respect to education level, social background, interests, and so on. (I'm tempted to ask how many interests besides alcohol a drunk has when he's hitting bottom, but that is not my real reason for writing.) Actually, I agree that the best sponsor-pigeon relationship involves a real connection between the people involved, but I don't think it is or needs to be anything obvious like both being college professors or both liking to go to ball games. It's a lot deeper than that: I'd almost go so far as to call it a mystical relationship. I've seen it over and over again in AA that the most unlikely fellow turns out to be the guy who relates to the difficult pigeon on whom almost everybody gave up.