He Talked My Language

The message a group carries is its own, one alcoholic's experience told to another, and no program's curriculum can stand in for it. Dr. Bob said what reached him (Big Book, p. 180): "he was the first living human with whom I had ever talked, who knew what he was talking about in regard to alcoholism from actual experience. In other words, he talked my language." Dr. Bob was a doctor. He had read widely and heard the experts. What he had never heard was a drunk who had found a way out. The Long Form says each group carries "its message" (p. 563): the group's own, the experience of the alcoholics in its chairs. The rumour treats the message as any recovery content at all, so a meeting can be filled with whatever a program teaches: worksheets, coping skills, its vocabulary, a counsellor's talk. A curriculum is a set course of lessons. It is not A.A.'s message, and a drinker who came for that message gets a class instead. Today this happens most in rooms a facility runs and calls A.A. Test it tonight: ask whether the last newcomer in your room heard an alcoholic say how he drank and how he got out, in his own words.