A QUESTION OF ATTITUDES
Don D. went to an AA meeting one evening. He frowned when a member mispronounced a few words while reading "How It Works." He felt appalled when another member stood up and said he was an alcoholic and an addict. Another person talked to long. As he slipped out the door immediately after the meeting, he muttered, "That was terrible. I should have stayed home."
Bob M. went to a meeting one evening. His head was bowed as he listened to the "Preamble" and "How It Works." His eyes moistened as he listened to a member tell his story. He was grateful for being able to attend this meeting. After clean-up and a little socializing he paused, and as he locked the meeting room door, his thoughts were, "Thank God for such a beautiful fellowship."
Both AA members were at the same meeting. Each found what they were looking for.
from Stepping Stones to Recovery by Bill Pittman, page 116
AN ATTITUDE TO TAKE TO MEETINGS
One meeting we had was on the twenty-first floor of a downtown office building. A mountain had fallen on the city's only power plant, and so there was no electricity on for over four months! We had to walk up the twenty-one flights of stairs. The meeting got very small. At one point all of us who attended there regularly were out of town except for Bill. He was an older man, quite overweight, and not in very good physical condition. Getting up those twenty-one flight of stairs was quite an effort for him. But I found out that while we were all gone, he had walked up those twenty-one flights three times a week and sat in that room alone. I asked him why he did that, since he knew that we were all out of town. He said, "Somebody might have come up those stairs looking for an AA meeting, and I just had to be there in case that happened."
from A Woman Like You: page 52, paragraph 1, lines 1-14