The Birthday

Last September, as my twenty-fourth AA birthday approached, my friends grew excited for me and wanted to arrange a celebration. But I couldn't match their enthusiasm. I felt a sort of calm, quiet neutrality. Yes, I was glad to be sober, but that was all the reaction I had to my upcoming birthday. It was just another day to me. During this time, I was serving as the chip person for our local intergroup, an easy job that I loved. A couple of weeks before my birthday, a woman called, asking me to bring a thirty-five-year chip to the Saturday Grapevine meeting on September 21. She explained that it was for an older man who no longer attended meetings, but a friend was bringing him to celebrate his birthday. I said sure, but inside I resented providing one of "our" chips to an outsider, someone who only attended AA meetings once a year to get his chip. Who was this guy anyway? After all, the chips were for actual members of local groups, right? filled with pious indignation, I nonetheless stuck a thirty-five-year chip in my purse and forgot about it for the next two weeks.