The Disappointed Friend

The man who carried A.A. into Canada hoped it would become a dry crusade, and the drunks he brought together would not do it; they only wanted the next drinker. Bill W. (A.A. Comes of Age): "Sometime in 1940 a temperance worker at Toronto showed the A.A. book to an alcoholic who had resisted all other attempts at rescue." A temperance worker is someone campaigning against drink. His name was George Little, a minister as well, and he had every reason to expect an ally. Instead, Bill wrote, he "was not a little disappointed that his strange new flock showed no interest whatever in getting everybody bone dry. They insisted they were concerned only with local imbibers who wanted A.A." An imbiber is a drinker. The first Canadian A.A.s owed this man a great deal and still gave him no say in what they stood for. "Here it was definitely proved for the first time that A.A. could never become a dry crusade". The drinker who wasn't ready yet could still find them later, because they had not made themselves his enemy. Today the friend is a funder or an agency that sends people to meetings and expects the meetings to share its cause. Test it tonight: ask whether anyone who helps your group expects a say in what it stands for.