THE LAST WORD

"Alcoholics," a woman named Nancy once said in a meeting, "are people who treat loneliness with isolation." Walled off by our alcoholism, we retreat into the solitary confinement of fear, resentment, and self-pity. Sobriety helps change that, and for a blowout example of that change, consider the International Convention, AA's biggest party, which has been held every five years since 1950. At the 2000 Convention, 47,000 AA members, friends, and family gathered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, from June 29 through July 2 to celebrate sobriety. With the theme, "Pass It On--Into the 21st Century," it was a combination AA meeting, workshop, meeting-after-the-meeting, and birthday bash, since June 2000 marks AA's sixty-fifth birthday. As a young man from Portugal put it heading home from the convention, "It was the very, very best party I've ever been to."