December 4 — We Got One!
“We got one!” — the way Janine yelled it in Ghostbusters.
When we approach someone still stuck in the disease, the first thing to remember is simple: we’re dealing with a very sick human being. Not a bad one. Maybe a doomed one. But still — a sick one.
So we slow down.
We get what information we can from somebody who actually knows the person — and we dodge gossip like our sobriety depends on it. We already know the disease is calling the shots, and we should know what comes along with that. Maybe they’ve done a hundred awful things… but honestly, who didn’t once they crossed their own line?
Then we tell the truth about ourselves:
How we were flying blind in our own lives until we learned we weren’t “bad people needing to be good,” but sick people needing to get well. That’s the doorway.
From there: read the room.
If he’s in a rotten mood, talk about hopelessness — your hopelessness.
If he’s lighter, go ahead and share a funny disaster story. The kind only a sober drunk can laugh about because we’re not living that way anymore.
After a while, outline the program in your own words — not like a lecture, not like a sales pitch — just one drunk talking to another.
And then leave.
We don’t chase.
We don’t hound.
Maybe a check-in? Sure.
But if the person wants what AA has, they’ll come find us. Willingness is born, not forced.
That’s the whole job:
Show up, be real, and get out of God’s way.
Who was the first AA member that approached you—or the first one you connected with—and what happened in that moment?
