Hope

AROUND THE TABLES, hope pours forth from the sharing of a bunch of drunks as they reveal what they were like, what happened, and what they are like now. No first-timer can yet have the faith that AA will work for him or her. Faith, I believe, comes later, after there is a spark of hope that he or she can do the same, incredible as it may seem. It isn't the veteran's "I was like you" that does it, but rather the veteran's "This is what I was like" that can give the spark to the newcomer. This drunk would never have accepted "I was like you," for nobody could have been as bad, desperate, amoral, and guilty as I was. Or else I would have thought, "I can't be as bad as these guys." But when an old-timer spoke about himself, there appeared--dimly, very dimly at first--the possibility that there might be a connection between drinking alcohol and my misery.